What we do in this moment, presenting ourselves before the Lord, is done because of what we are. What we do is always quite secondary to what we are, because unless we know what we are, what we do is of very little consequence. What we are is known to the extent that it is, insofar as each one of us is concerned, because of the One that we speak of as our KING. We have no being apart from that. Those who imagine that they have—and this would include most of the human population—discover that it isn't true. At some point they cease to have any being on earth. We are together this morning, this afternoon in the east, simply because we have discovered a certain measure of oneness in spirit, oneness in the creative process we may say. That is exactly the same as being one in our KING. A definition of the creative process was apparently given by Him, when He was on earth a long time ago, using the words, “the way, the truth, and the life.” This is the creative process. And He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the creative process.” The only way by which anyone can experience what it means to be in Him—which, by the way, isn't a matter of being in Jesus somehow; that would be quite a trick—is to be in the creative process, which He is, and which each one of us may say “I am” when we are there. It is a matter of being fused into the creative process so that that is what we are. It is no longer, then, something separate from us into which we may come on occasion or with which we may, if we find it pleasing, associate ourselves. It becomes exactly what we are, no separation, a fusing in oneness.
We discover that there is nothing else but the creative process. If, as human beings have done, we should exclude ourselves from the creative process by rebelling against it, by resisting it, by wanting to do our own thing, then we find ourselves sooner or later out in the cold, very literally, because there isn't anything else but the creative process. There is no existence apart from that. While we are on the way out into the cold there may seem to be a little temporary existence which, according to the number of complaints one hears round about, is not a very satisfactory state. So we share in this moment some awareness of the creative process and, to that extent, some awareness of who we are. Let us never anymore allow heart and mind to rebel against the creative process, to resist it, because we are attempting in heart and mind to have our own way.
There is a story in the beginning of the Bible which speaks of a woman by the name of Eve, who wanted to have her own way. That is where the trouble started, and that is exactly where it continues. As it turned out she had a pretty sad experience. She not only lost herself and her womanliness, she lost her man, and found a pale male creature as a substitute, and then proceeded to complain about him: “Look where I may, I cannot find a man. Therefore I have to depend upon myself to establish control in this rather limited state, and so I am determined, one way or another, to have my own way.” This may seem to be rather a brash way of putting it but it is the fact nevertheless. Complaining about the absence of a man, she apparently fails to recognize that all the men that have put in an appearance over the course of the ages have been through her. She may say, “Well men want to have their way too.” Of course! They put in an appearance on earth through her and, in the early years of life at least, they are thoroughly imbued with the female determination to have her own way.
There is an interesting passage in the Book of Revelation where there was a woman in labor apparently. She brought forth a man child. There was another character on hand ready to take charge, but this man child was caught up to God and to His Throne. Usually this is interpreted as meaning that here was a portrayal of what did happen insofar as Jesus was concerned. But here is a portrayal insofar as every man child is concerned who is born into the world. This woman was apparently a remarkable character, clothed with the sun and all, and willing for this to transpire. So her son was caught up to God and to His Throne and delivered from the control of the dragon, who was hopefully standing by—the intent being that there might be a man. A man is a man because of heaven, because of being caught up to God and to His Throne.
There Must Be A Man On Earth
And we have the record of one in particular, the One who was called Jesus. Here was a man who carried authority. He carried authority because, remarkably, having been brought up by a woman He did not fall into the trap of emulating her in trying to do what He wanted to do in the human sense. I am sure I speak with the greatest of confidence when I say of all the men within the sound of my voice now, every last one of them, including myself, were intent upon doing what they wanted to do. Anyone here who would dispute that point? I trust not, because I would call him a liar.
I am not describing the situation this way so that the men can then say, “Well all the women are to blame; after all, I was brought up by a woman”—women probably. Some of you may have had the experience of an older sister too, who established the idea that one should do what one wants to do. Of course there was, no doubt, a certain amount of discipline involved, for some anyway, when what the little boy wanted to do was considered to be bad: “Shouldn't do that, naughty.” But this didn't in any way detract from the idea that one needs to do what one wants to do, presumably provided it is good. “Just don't do the bad things; you will find it's much more useful to do the good things, and then you will be a success.” Of course some found out there was some sort of a fallacy in this and so they did the bad thing anyway. But whatever the experience may have been, it was all based in the idea that one should do what one wants to do. Of course living cheek by jowl with a lot of other people, one has to modify it a bit so that you don't tread on too many toes; otherwise you won't be able to get what you want to get.
Anyway, here is the picture of mankind, the state of mankind: the men playing at being men, having been brought up by women; and the women intent upon maintaining their control over men, but in any case maintaining a hand on the way things go. A hopeless state: fallen women—that is one way of putting it—establishing control over fallen men. We have looked at this before, but I reiterate the matter because there is only one way out of the condition, and that is that there should be a man on earth. This is clearly seen from the standpoint of the creative process. That is why the Master put in an appearance. He put in an appearance for both men and women, that there might be a point on earth, a point of authority, spiritual authority, which was uncontrolled by the human urge to do what one wants to do and to get what one wants to get. There is no way out of the human impasse without that. There has to be such a point that will not conform to the female requirements. I became aware of this myself by reason of Uranda back along the way and found myself, at a certain point, projected into the focus of this requirement.
Of course the endeavor to do what one wants to do, as I have indicated, was no longer limited to the female. It was part of the character of the male too. If I point to the original female action it is not to put anyone down but merely to face the fact of it. That is where it occurred, and it will not un-occur without a man. It has been an impasse, hasn't it, because the woman determined how the men should behave, and then when the men behaved the way she had determined they should behave she would complain about it and say there is no man there. And there has been this perennial seeking of a man—“my own personal man, my puppet.” Sadly, men have gone along with it, and only broken out a little bit by establishing various male arrangements which excluded the female. Even that's breaking down these days. In every field the female inserts herself. “Equal rights,” they say. So the whole mass, particularly in the Western world I suppose you would say, becomes a sort of jelly. They talk about “unisex” these days, which means “nothing.” So the woman lost herself.
As you may recall, according to the story, she was taken out of man. There is a natural unification between male and female when there is a man. But that unification is not based in any way at all upon what either the woman wants or the man wants. Because there was something in a woman that a man wanted he has remained in subjection to her, beating his chest the while. And because there was something that the woman wanted from the man she has remained trapped in her own determination to have her own way. We have had the opportunity of looking at all these things, and no doubt we have glanced at them occasionally. And we have had the opportunity of talking about them. I know one of the favorite subjects that comes up when Emissaries get together is relationships, as though talking about it was going to change anything. It is a matter of accepting the creative process, isn't it, whatever that is. We have had some theories about it. We talk about positive and negative, and the four forces, and all this, which is supposed, presumably, to make us feel wise in our own eyes. But what has it really meant? There is a truth to be known, not merely theories to be discussed. There are some factors in relationship to that truth that it is well that we should become mentally aware of; otherwise we would be inclined to reject the very thing that we seek. So we share the responsibility of experience.
There has to be a point of authority, a male point of authority, to provide a point of orientation. We know this in theory, and I am sure that many of you have recognized your own responsibility as men to provide a point of authority, a point of orientation. You can't do that until you first know what that is; and you can't know what that is without recognizing and acknowledging the point of orientation of man that is provided in the creative process. It can't be done outside of the creative process, so that narrows it down considerably and makes it very pointed. There is the necessity, then, for men to acknowledge and accept that point of authority, spiritual authority. Not an authority which is going to shake a finger and say, “Well you do it this way or else,” relative to the external field of activity.
One of the things that the male has very largely lost is the ability to communicate, to have communion, with another male. This is the first order of business in actual fact. Men are quite willing to discuss all kinds of external things with each other, particularly over a bottle of beer, but usually steer well away from anything which would relate to revealing something of the heart. There is fear here. The close spiritual communion between men allows for the male point of focus of authority to put in an appearance in an expanded sense; otherwise it can't. There is nothing available then, and the woman can support her view that there are no men, because that's the fact of it. She doesn't readily admit that it is because of her actions that it is that way. But then, because the man went along with all this subtlety of female control, not so subtle sometimes, he felt inadequate spiritually but didn't want to admit it. And while from the Emissary standpoint I suppose there has been a certain amount of admission in this regard—otherwise there would be no direction in which to go—what was necessary has yet continued to be inadequate. If the ladies want something to do, let them stop wanting to get their own way. This has become such a deeply embedded habit that most never notice it. I find the evidence of it, unfortunately, rather blatant.
Let There Be Men
Then let there be women. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-essential-female-role.html] Men are not made to be men by women. That's right, isn't it? We know that. Men are men because of God, only because of that. If God is excluded, if the experience of the creative process in actual daily living is excluded—this is a spiritual experience—then there is no man; there is merely the character that was forthcoming by reason of female intervention.
We know very well the mechanics of the situation in the sense of how in the external sense we are made. We have a physical body; we have a mind; we have a capacity for spiritual expression. And there is the matter of the heart; of course we are well aware that it is the impure heart that blocks everything. Physical substance, the physical substance of our own bodies, we are aware of that. We are also aware of the fact of a mind of some sort. This relates to substance, vibrational substance, at a different level to the physical substance, and yet it is not separate from the physical substance, any more than one band of color in the rainbow is separate from the others. They all blend, it is all one thing. So physical substance is filled with mental substance, one might say permeated by it. And the mental substance is not separate from the physical substance; it is just a different vibratory level. So mind and body are in fact one. And there is some spiritual substance also, which permeates the mental substance and the physical substance. They are all one. But the extent of spiritual substance has been so restricted that only a distorted limited range of spirit could occupy it. We may speak of this as the unholy ghost; it is not whole, just bits and pieces. And it is through this unholy ghost that the control has been present, or the expression of character has been present, in both men and women.
But permeating all this again is what may be spoken of as emotional substance, the substance of the heart. And the substance of the heart is the means by which the connection is made between spirit and all the rest: physical, mental, and spiritual expression. The substance of the heart has been wicked. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That is the way it has been. That is a very accurate description of human experience, simply because the heart was impure and the remains of spirit that got through was of a distorted, limited, restricted extent and consequently would be accurately described as the unholy ghost. And the unholy ghost has been the controlling basis for human function, human nature.
These are things that we can mentally describe in this fashion. The description doesn't say really what it is. We have to come to know what it is because the door opens between heaven and earth and the Holy Spirit can flood through and bring the understanding. That is the only way that understanding can come. It can't be gotten out of the mental realm somehow, through study and intellectual effort. All that happens is that things get more and more confused. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God, they shall be permeated by God. The physical form permeated by God, the mind permeated by God, spiritual expression is then the expression of God, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whole, complete, balanced, accurate. As this occurs there is, first of all, a man.
It is a matter of the heart, isn't it? And men are very reluctant to allow their hearts to be purified. They can't be purified as long as they keep them locked up: no admittance, no admittance except to women. And men become devastated on this basis, naturally so. A man's heart does not belong to a woman; it belongs to God. That is all there is to it. But men have become so accustomed to opening their hearts to women that what is of the female floods in, and then the man acts like a pale imitation of a woman. He could never be a really good imitation! And we have all this mixed-up confusion and nonsense in the world, where everybody wants what they want, wants to do what they want to do, and wants it enshrined in law—human law of course, because the other law, the real law, is there already. You can't change it; in that sense I suppose it is like the law of the Medes and Persians. The way things work, the creative process in other words, is the way it is, and it doesn't allow for any of these human discrepancies. To try to enshrine human discrepancy in a legal state is ridiculous. It doesn't belong anywhere and it disappears sooner or later. It could go out with a big bang, couldn't it? No more human beings and their nonsense! I don't think that should happen. I don't think it needs to happen.
But there must be authority in focus on earth from the male standpoint. There must be a man, in other words, who cannot, will not ever, be pushed around by women—or by other men for that matter. But the point is with respect to women. If there are those women who are willing to let their hearts be purified so that they accept that point of spiritual authority absolutely, then they no longer feel inadequate and try to fill their inadequacy with inadequate males. There is something here which relates to the matter of no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven. There's a hump to come over here. The question is, of course: “What is it in heaven?” Well you never find out without being there, and you can't be there except you let heaven come into the earth.
So we share the responsibility of doing this, but it requires an absoluteness that is absolute. When there is a stable point of male focus on earth there is a beginning point for what needs to happen—only because of that. Most have been so wrapped up in their own affairs—“How does this work out, and how should I handle that, and what's the other thing?”—that they overlook the one thing that is necessary: establish absoluteness from the standpoint of this spiritual point of authority. Then share in it, share in it, be it. But you will not be pushed around by women anymore, and you know how that happens. The control is there where it belongs, and only as it is there is there any expectation of anything of value happening. Whatever may have happened within the range of our own experience as Emissaries has happened because of this, this one thing. And because of this one thing there has begun to be an expansion of male authority. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/10/like-man.html]
Out of male authority women come. That is the way it works. Some of the ladies may object to it. You are welcome to object but you are not going to change it. That is the way it is. Now I say this with a certain authority. But you may say, “Well I don't know whether to accept that authority or not.” Try it. Yes, there are those who are accepting it in their own experience, not as an external thing but as an internal thing, a clarifying, a cleansing, a purifying of the heart, so that there is the substance of connection between spirit and form—that's in the heart. But what has the heart been filled with insofar as human experience is concerned? Emotional stuff of all kinds, and particularly the interaction between so-called men and so-called women.
Let the heart be purified. “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Such a statement indicates that hearts are troubled and are afraid; that is where the control is. Women are afraid of losing their control, whatever it amounts to; and men are afraid, of course, also of losing what they want. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I suppose this could be said to be the basic instruction or, maybe, the basic experience to be known now, in this moment: an untroubled and an unfearful heart which is willing to accommodate the creative process in action.
Here we are this morning together to provide that, that there may be a unified, fused means by which the creative process may emerge in spiritual expression on earth. We perhaps have shared this somewhat in this hour to the extent that we were not caught in the human nature state but were willing to let our hearts come free and be purified. One of the first things we ever learned in the Emissary ministry was summarized by the words: “I shall not want.” Nice words. True words. But how much do any of us know as to what they really mean? We have the opportunity of sharing that because it is the way, the truth and the life. It is the creative process.Let there be a man on earth. Then let there be a woman on earth. What that might be is only discovered by letting it be. Obviously it allows the fulfilment in male and female experience based in the state of man, man inseparably one with God, man revealing the creative process in all his ways, in all his living. Let it be so.
The tabernacle of God is with men. There would be no adequate dwelling place possible on earth for God without men. It seems that often human beings have the right words, which they repeat. This is particularly so in the religious world, where many of the things that are said are true enough. There is indeed a need for human beings to come back to God, which is another way of saying to awaken to the truth—God didn't go anywhere. In spite of the many words that are spoken, so little has really happened. We presumably have seen something of this and we are not inspired. So there was a sufficient awakening to bring us into an awareness of the continuing presence of God and a recognition that we ourselves are rightly the tabernacle of God.
It is our desire, I am sure, to welcome God into His tabernacle that He might be wholly present. In our own experience He has as yet only been partially present; there is a wholeness to be known. “And ye shall know the truth,” not the truth about God or about anything, but know the truth because this is our total expression in life; then we know it.
We recognize that it is because God has been excluded from human experience, except in little dribs and drabs, that the world has been filled with violence and all the things that accompany violence. All the troubles in the world have been the result of excluding God from His tabernacle. The attitude has been: “God, stay out of the world and leave it to us.” The result of course is trouble. So much of human achieving, then, has been in this field of trouble. “Let us get rid of the trouble”—this would be a great achievement. “Let us set up an arrangement so as to eliminate war; let us find out all about everything so that we can eliminate disease.” This medical field is a great field for human achieving, isn't it? Virtually all attempts of achievement by human beings have been to get rid of the results of excluding God from His tabernacle. Obviously that is rather foolish. Perhaps we have awakened sufficiently to see its foolishness and have consequently undertaken to allow something else to happen, so that we stop contending with trouble, trying to make our mark on earth because of our success in eliminating trouble. We decided, I suppose, that the better approach would be to welcome God into His tabernacle so that there wouldn't be any trouble.
I speak these words now. They may seem to be quite familiar to you. You know about it; you maybe even know it to some extent; but most people on the face of the earth don't. There wouldn't be so much insistence upon unnecessary achievement if these things were known. Even though we may claim to know them ourselves we also have been engaged somewhat in trying to eliminate trouble, attempting to achieve something in this regard. But the trouble, as we recognize, results from the exclusion of God from His tabernacle. And if we acknowledge that we ourselves were designed to compose at least a part of His tabernacle, then this is the business of achieving that we should be about.
But what is the purpose of the tabernacle? That God might beon earth. The word being relates very particularly to this tabernacle. When God is in His tabernacle on earth then some achieving becomes possible. But the achieving wouldn't be to try to eliminate trouble; there would be no need for that. There is something else to be achieved. There is a purpose, a creative purpose, of which man is entirely ignorant at the moment, so that all his energies have been channeled into this business of trying to eliminate the trouble. What a waste of time; it can't be eliminated. We may succeed in mitigating suffering in some measure here or there, but the trouble continues. There is a continuing crisis of famine in the world, starving human beings. A great deal of effort is poured into the endeavor to feed everybody. Some get fed a little, and that of course is acceptable to them presumably; but then a lot don't, and starve in consequence. The solution never comes; the trouble never goes away; it gets worse, in fact, because there are more mouths to feed continually.
Let the tabernacle of God be present so that God may be in His tabernacle. There must be a place for the being of God. In speaking of man in his relationship to God, he is referred to Biblically as a woman. We see here the positive in God, the negative in man. Man's position obviously is to provide a setting, a home, a tabernacle, where God may be on earth; so mankind is cast in the role of a woman in relationship to God. We are aware of this positive-negativesituation; it probably is part of our belief system. But the belief system doesn't mean too much until the truth is known, until there is the tabernacle in which God may have His being on earth. This brings it closer to home, because we have an awareness of the fact that man was made in the image of God, created male and female.
So the being of God on earth carries with it some implications that are more than this broad principle just mentioned, of the relationship between God and man. We begin to find some detail filling in here because the composition of mankind is male and female. If we see that mankind is to provide the place of being for God on earth then we may come to the point of discovering how that could be so, and it involves the male and female aspects of mankind. There are particular roles, one might say, to be played here to allow the truth to be known. If we don't play the roles, we continue to exclude God. Excluding God, there is a rather futile endeavor to achieve something great, mostly on the part of the male.
In the world as it has been, the achieving aspect has obviously been dominant from the male standpoint. He has been trying to do great things to eliminate trouble from the world by producing it! He found that the female aspect of mankind wasn't too dependable, trustworthy, so let them have a little corner for themselves while the great male would do all the achieving on his own. In recent years this approach has begun to break down a bit, in the Western world at least, but I don't know that what has arisen by reason of that breaking down is any better than what was there before, because it is all basically the same endeavor to achieve by eliminating trouble. Now the trouble perhaps is double, because the ladies have projected themselves into the position of achieving too. All this is not going to accomplish anything very significant but nevertheless is a part of the changing scene.
Things are breaking down somewhat and we have a certain awareness of the reason for this, which isn't what most people think it is but relates to the matter of radiation, spiritual radiation, which is coming into specific focus on earth. However, that radiation is dependent upon God and His being on earth, and that necessitates the tabernacle, which is the responsibility of men. It is interesting that the translation should have spoken of men rather than man. “The tabernacle of God is with men.” Well I don't think it was meant to exclude women actually, but we could see something here in retranslating the words to say, “Women are with men,” because the female aspect has the primary responsibility of making space for being on earth. The male responsibility centers primarily in achieving. That is right. He has been trying to do it on the wrong basis but he has that responsibility in the true design; and the female has the responsibility for providing the place of being. So, as I say, the words, instead of being, “The tabernacle of God is with men,” could be: “Women are with men.”
The facility of Being is with the facility of Achieving
The two aspects are present in mankind. There is a reason why there are men and women, and the reason is something other than is usually supposed. I think the idea is that the human race needs to continue to be propagated; I think that there has been a little too much of that going on. But we have these two aspects, then, specifically indicated in this passage: “The tabernacle of God is with men.” The place of being, rightly, is provided by mankind for the achieving by mankind of the purposes of God.
Of course male and female aspects are present in both men and women. The male aspect, it is presumed, should be dominant in the male, and the female aspect dominant in the female. But if we are looking at these two particular aspects then the female aspect is responsible for the place of being. This relates to the matter of protection, as we were considering it before. Usually it is thought that men are supposed to be protecting women. This is a nice fiction, but in the true design what would one be protecting women from? The protection needful—which is only defined in terms of that word while the present state of mankind exists—relates to providing space for God.
It certainly is true that mankind has sought to eliminate God. Seldom is it seen as deliberate action, and yet the fact of the matter is, it is deliberate action. The very fact that Jesus, who provided the focus of the creative action of God on earth for a brief period, was rather quickly eliminated is an indication of what the attitude of human beings was then, and has been ever since. It might be said that those who were prime movers in the elimination of this particular man didn't know what they were doing. The Master Himself said something to that effect: “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Nevertheless what they did deliberately was to eliminate, as they thought, the focus of God on earth. A lot of people have been weeping and wailing about that since, but in spite of their crocodile tears they have continued to do exactly the same thing.
Awakening, to whatever extent we have, it is our desire to provide the tabernacle for God. And this provision of protection, a safe place, a place into which nothing that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie may enter, is the primary responsibility of women. We have certain awareness of the symbolic portrayal of the sea of glass mingled with fire, the streets of gold in the holy city. Here is something absolutely clear, particularly in the emotional realm of the ladies. That does not say that something shouldn't also be clear in the emotional realm of men, certainly. But in this portrayal by which the truth may be known there is a very particular part to be played by women to protect the Word—we might put it that way—to do it as individuals, so that there is always a safe, protected place for that beautiful, fitting expression of God: space for God on earth. It is done individually and it is done together. The place where there has been the most disruption, crosscurrents of all kinds, has been in the hearts of women, between themselves. Of course usually men came into the picture too, as pawns, one might say, in the game. But what should be the golden streets of the city, the sea of glass mingled with fire, was to be provided, and is to be provided, primarily by women, that there may be a place of being for God, where He will not instantly be destroyed. Of course you can't destroy God, but you can destroy the experience of God, and this has been consistently done down through the ages.
I have mentioned before that women do have a responsibility for protecting the hearts of men. Why should this be so? Because men have a particular responsibility in the field of achieving, and their ability to achieve what needs to be achieved is made into an impossible task if there is a constant furor going on in the vicinity of their emotional realm. Men know, and women know too, that the women have become experts in producing and sustaining such a furor, nullifying the value of male achievement and preventing the tabernacle of God from being known in experience on earth. So here, in considering these things in these terms, we have an understanding, a growing understanding, of the design of things, the design of things not merely to be looked at but to be experienced.
Male Achieving in the true sense is impossible without Female Being
Because this has been lacking so much on earth men have attempted to achieve many things, and boast about it a good deal, but we understand that it has been worthless. In order to achieve what they have achieved there was at least the necessity for some dependable women; or on the other hand homosexuality came into the picture, where men for their achieving found greater dependability in another man than they could find in a woman. So all kinds of distorted states of affairs have been produced which nowadays it seems many want to legalize, to make permanent. I don't think any of us should be interested in that but in allowing the true design to appear; that is the only satisfactory experience anyway. In that design male and female are required and they have their respective roles to play. There is a certain amount of overlapping of course. It is only because there is overlapping that oneness is possible.
We begin to become aware of the roles that are necessary and presumably, under the dominion of the spirit of God, begin to make sure that those roles are played. We don't fiddle around playing games anymore; we get down to business. And the primary business is that there should be a sea of glass clear as crystal, a sea of glass mingled with fire, which indicates that there is a certain passion present—not a cold, icy sea of glass. That is about what most human beings apparently have thought was possible: Let the water get frozen and we can walk on it! But this sea of glass, these streets of gold, provide a foundation from which achieving may spring, and what men are designedto achieve then becomes possible. Of course it becomes possible to them when they forget about their human ambitionsas they have been heretofore and begin to let their achieving be incorporated into the purposes of God. This all comes about naturally as women provide the protection and the foundation that is necessary for that achieving. There are men, obviously, who are desirous of achieving on this basis. They are emasculated until there are women who provide what is necessary from the standpoint of the required protection and foundation.
Our concern is with those men and women who associate themselves with these things. This would presently be a very small percentage of the total population of the earth. But when I speak of these things I am speaking presumably to those who have some understanding and who are capable of allowing that understanding to be translated into experience. So here we are together to allow this to occur.
All this relates to the matter of letting the Word be made flesh. The flesh is usually thought of simply in terms of the human form, initially the form of Jesus. But there was more to the form of Jesus, and to all the rest of us too for that matter, than physical flesh. There are other levels of flesh; at least they could be so described. There is what might be called mentalflesh, emotionalflesh. These various levels of flesh, which cannot in fact be separated from each other, may be imbued, and rightly should be imbued, by what has been referred to as the Holy Spirit. Presently these levels of flesh have been imbued only by an unwhole spirit, which comes out as an unholy spirit, and we have the mess and the confusion in the realms of being and achieving that are present in the world now. There is the necessity of substance—we have spoken of it as flesh—at all levels, so that the whole of spirit, the spirit of God, may be accommodated. When this is so, we find rather naturally that the substance of our being is far more than the flesh of our physical bodies. In the consciousness of most people the fact of being has been limited to the physical body, so that there is fear of death, for instance, death of the physical flesh, physical body, because all the eggs are in that basket. But that isn't all there is to a person; we are aware of this.
There is a facility composed of substance which, when it is all present, can accommodate the Holy Spirit: the whole of being that comes to focus in the individual, and that comes to focus collectively, that there may be achieving. If there is to be radiation there must be the place from which the radiation comes. We speak of that place when we use the word God, the place of being out of which springs the Word of achieving. Being and achieving both are present with respect to the tabernacle of God. The tabernacle, the word tabernacle, is descriptive of all these levels of flesh, substance, for which man is responsible, that God may have a place of being and a place of achieving. So we share the responsibility as men and women for allowing the design to be made known because we live, not to be theorized about but that we may participate in the creative process by which the Will of God is done in earth as it is in heaven. In this regard, also, the first statement in the Lord's Prayer is: “Thy kingdom come”—the place of being come, because unless there is a place of being there is no place from which to proceed with the achieving.
Man as a whole provides a place of being for God. Man as a whole provides a place of achieving for God. And this is a very coordinated business; it isn't just by chance that things happen. And we have male and female in the picture, so that there might be the reality of being brought to focus and the reality of achieving brought to focus, working together as one, because if either one is missing nothing happens. This flesh facility, both male and female, rightly becomes increasingly imbued by the spirit of God in its wholeness. This has been called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it can only pour out when there is the facility for that pouring. Here is our combined responsibility. And as this total flesh, of which the physical flesh is only a small part, is imbued with the Holy Spirit, obviously a transformation occurs. It is a state that hasn't been known heretofore because there hasn't been substance at all levels to let it happen. But when it does happen the occurrence is described by using the word resurrection.
If you have imagined that your physical body is all-important, then what are you going to experience if you don't have it anymore? If the total identity is wrapped up with the physical form, as it has tended to be with human beings, and the physical form vanishes, the identity vanishes. But if there is a recognition that there is far more than the physical form involved—there is flesh at levels which are beyond the comprehension of human minds at the present time, or human hearts for that matter—then as these levels are present the substance is full. Then they become the Holy Ghost; in other words they are filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the basis for one's own identity. And the whole range of substance begins to be transmuted when it is all present so that the Holy Spirit can work fully through it.
That transmutation in season also includes, as the end product shall we say, transmutation of the flesh of the physical body. Now what all that means is unknown, and I am not talking about it to inform you of anything but to awaken you to the creative process by which the essential substance may be present and the experience of transmutation, of resurrection, may be known. We have experienced some of it already. There has been a changing in our emotional experience, in our mental understanding. We see things differently, we feel things differently; there is to that extent the experience of resurrection.
And while resurrection is occurring, behold, there is a new world too; the world is a different place from what we thought it was before. We begin to understand, know, what it is that is happening. And it is all under control, we might say. It is all happening under the hand of God. But now we participate with God in extending His hand, His view, His understanding on earth, and all things are thereby made new. That is the achievement that is necessary. Thinking about all things being made new, I suppose usually it is thought, “Well we are getting rid of all these old things, the mess that is on earth. It is going to be changed around sometime, somehow, and it won't be a mess anymore.” But making all things new relates to the true process of achievement, a creative process which has nothing to do with the mess that human beings have made on earth. If all achieving was designed to clear up that mess, what would we do after the mess was cleared up? No, there is something else far greater to be achieved, and we move into that achievement on the basis of the fact that there is a foundation of being established.
The foundation of being relates to the wiping away of all tears from their eyes, no more death, etc.—all this in the field of being. This is the fact in being. It doesn't have to be achieved; it is so; and when the tabernacle of God is present so that God is present it is known to be so, so that all the nightmares vanish away. That is all they were. The reality of being is known and the reality of achieving is brought forth.
Holy, holy, holy. There must be that holy place of being, and it is the primary responsibility of the ladies to make sure that it is always there. It is the essential female role, which has been sadly neglected in favor of all kinds of other roles. Let the role of being be played so that there is a sea of glass mingled with fire—lively people—and there are golden streets upon which to walk for the achieving. Then behold, by reason of that achieving, all things are continually made new; nothing ever gets old. Rejoice that it is so, and open the doors to a knowing of the truth so that the experience of resurrection becomes a present reality.
Lillian Cecil — Martin, the hearts of women, our hearts, welcome the Lord, that there might be those beautiful streets of gold, the gold symbolizing love.
And our hearts tonight are very open to you in love, that there might be the accomplishment of God's purposes again on earth.
Over the years I have had the doubtful pleasure of watching people wandering away toward the wilderness. Certainly I could not rightly grab them by the scruff of the neck and say, “Come back here.” I undertook what I could in various ways to provide the understanding necessary to allow whoever it was to choose to relinquish his or her hold on what it was that was taking them away, and to offer a vivid possibility of seeing the truth, which would let them come home again. In such case from the human standpoint there tends to be an urge to try to deal directly with what is taking that person away. But each one has to accept responsibility for his own willingness or unwillingness to find polarity in the truth. In the very initial stages where a person is beginning to come in, a very great deal may be provided; but once a person has become aware of the true focus of orientation in the truth, one cannot violate the right to choose which is present in that person. I've sought over the years constantly to provide the orientation point in the truth, but each one must choose to accept it for himself. It is a rather repetitious experience of sadness to observe how there are those who drift back into the human nature state.
The spirit of truth is always present. The door is always open. We need to be very sure, as individuals, that this is the fact in our own expression of living—the fact for others. Once self-centeredness begins to dissolve, our concern is for others, not so much for this one or that one but for providing what is necessary to bring the world back to the Lord, whom we love and are present on earth to serve. We know that this can't be done if we violate the right of choice in others. What need there is for this consistency of provision, the truth in expression in one's own living, so that all may have no excuse for failing to come home because of us.
The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Mother God, just as the Spirit of Love is the Spirit of Father God. Our own spirit, as Sons and Daughters of God,is found in the union of these two spirits: Love and Truth. And the evidence of that union in our own experience is the Spirit of Life, the revelation on earth of what life is in MAN, male and female. Obviously human beings for a long time have failed to reveal this. What they have revealed is the spirit of death, and the fulfilment has come, generation after generation. This has become so automatic in human experience that it is considered inevitable. In theory perhaps we are aware that it need not be so inevitable as it looks, but in fact it has remained more or less inevitable.
The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Mother God, and this relates particularly to the planet upon which we dwell, the earth. There have recently been a number of those giving form to this Emissary body who have recognized that the earth itself is a living organism. It is indeed the body of Mother God insofar as we are concerned. Mother God comes to focus in the earth, and the planet itself is the living form of the Spirit of Truth. The sun of the solar system is revealing of the body of Father God. If we consider the creative process as it has related to this planet we may recognize a correlation with a fairy story, of which we may all be aware, namely the one which tells of the sleeping beauty, the sleeping princess who remains in a coma until the prince puts in an appearance and offers the kiss of life. This is merely a story, indicative of the factual happening as it relates to this planet. “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” And then came the kiss of life. The prince, the father-to-be in this particular configuration within the solar system, may be recognized in the form of the solar orb from which comes the kiss of life insofar as the planet earth is concerned. And the earth awakened to life.
In the story of the creation the various forms of life which appeared on the surface of the planet were present before ever man was thought of. The evidence was present of the clothing of the form of Mother God with life. There was the vegetation and there were the creatures of the earth, all of them proclaiming the reality of life. Exactly what that was is unknown to human beings presently, but clearly it was a harmonious condition generated by reason of the kiss of life from the prince, through the form of the solar orb and its radiation, bringing the form of Mother God into the experience of life, awakening. So here we can share in an awareness of the natural blending between the forms of Father God and Mother God, so that Mother God might live and participate with Father God in the creative process which was yet to be. God has, generally speaking, been looked upon as male, at least from the standpoint of Christianity; and while there has been some recognition that there must be the female aspect which, insofar as Catholicism for instance is concerned, is found in the one that is called the mother of God, that isn't the mother of God but, rather, Mother God. Because of this romance within the solar configuration there was the conception and the birth of the Son of God, the Son of Father and Mother God, namely MAN on earth.
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Man's primary responsibility was, as it was put, to dress and to keep the Garden, in other words to care and protect the form of Mother God. If we observe what has occurred on earth we can be easily aware that this responsibility has been forgotten and, instead, the son has raped the mother. The spirit of the mother is as it always has been; we see this in terms of the Spirit of Truth. But the body of the mother has been raped by the son who had the responsibility for keeping and caring for the body of the mother. This was a primary responsibility, not indeed the only responsibility, but if that responsibility was not handled correctly, then the larger responsibility could not be taken care of.
The Son contains within himself the nature of the Father and the nature of the Mother, Love and Truth, to be naturally revealed in Life, in the expression of the Spirit of Life which is a balance of the nature and the character of Father God and Mother God. The union of Love and Truth—the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of the Father; and the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of the Mother—established the Spirit of Life for MAN and for those purposes which should be served by reason of this life. Primarily we recognize that the Son is responsible for keeping and caring for the body of the Mother. As we have noted, there has been terrible failure in this regard. No wonder there is this deep, devastating sense of shame in humankind.
The One who came on earth in the form of Jesus has been referred to as the Son of God. Here a focus of the union of the Spirit of Father God and Mother God was established in the living expression of a man on earth: the Son of God restored. We are aware that it might have been a far greater thing when He came than the human beings who were there present allowed it to be, but it was the fact insofar as this one individual body of flesh was concerned. The union of the spirit of the father and the spirit of the mother allowed the revelation of the spirit of life in form on earth—the spirit of man. He was left alone to do this without any agreement or assistance from others. He did it. Here was the focus point of man restored. His body was just an individual body, one man, insufficient obviously to reveal anything but the essences of man restored. Those essences certainly were established and revealed, and so the foundation, the lines of force for the true body of the Son of God, which is rightly mankind—however many that might involve—could take form. We ourselves have some experience of what this implies. We and others have participated in an emergent collective form based in the union of Father God and Mother God—the spirit of love and the spirit of truth, revealed in the spirit of life finding expression through those who actually compose this body.
I suppose all this could be looked upon as some sort of mystical thing, but it isn't really, is it? It is a very obvious thing, in a sense we might say a very down-to-earth thing. The body of Mother God has been raped. That fact must be accepted. You can't unrape it. Human beings in their sense of shame and guilt, at least some of them, try to unrape it. They talk about cleaning up the air and the water, reestablishing the proper processes of ecology. But you can't unrape what has been raped. Human beings have come up with various schemes by which they hope to make the earth, as they think of it, a better place; but for what purpose?—because it would be more satisfactory to man, or to this travesty of man that exists on earth. Virtually nothing has even entered the consciousness of the vast majority that the purposes of man only maintain the state of rape of the body of Mother God.
We can see this in a larger general sense, but of course it's important that one should see it right close at hand. We do care for our surroundings here, and some may be impressed by the evidences of beauty that have put in an appearance. But I doubt if what has put in an appearance is anything better than what has put in an appearance in many other places on the face of the earth. The only distinction is the motivation for doing it. If we're merely trying to beautify our surroundings so that we may be more self-satisfied, there is no point to it. If it is an evidence of the fact that we're beginning to be aware of our responsibility for caring for the body of our mother, then perhaps there is some blessing released, but not because by anything we may do can we unrape what has been raped. In other words the state of all living forms on the face of the earth has been utterly spoiled.
What is required initially is the restoration of MAN. Nothing can be done for the body of Mother God except as MAN is restored to the state of being the Son of God. Then what has happened in MAN is the creative means by which the body of Mother God may be restored. But human beings in their blindness and darkness certainly would have no idea as to what the body of Mother God would be if it was restored. That restoration certainly would involve all the forms of life on earth, but it would also involve what is presently called the mineral kingdom. This, after all, is also a part of the body of Mother God. No doubt this relates to a change in the shape of the earth, in the forms of continents and seas, for instance. Because of the rape of the body of Mother God this form has been scarred and is in the process of being destroyed. The son of perdition, which is man presently as he is, destroys. We look around and, as has been indicated, there is a continual increase in the deserts on earth, in the destruction of the forests, in the pollution of the air and the water, in the awful and lethal weapons that have been produced by the son of perdition.
But the Son of God takes form again on earth. The body of that Son is male and female. We share the experience of this creative process, but it has nothing to do with the way things have been or even the way things now are. There is a creative process at work which increasingly is brought to focus as the body of the Son of God permitting the Son of God to be present.
This evening we have looked at these things from what might be thought of as a heavenly standpoint, observing what is really happening. We see human beings with their ideas and their opinions and their beliefs, fussing around on the surface of the earth, trying to save the world from disintegration, and others bent on destructiveness. I suppose those who are trying to save the world from disintegration would be looked upon as good and those who are destructive would be looked upon as bad. But what's the difference? They are all participating in the process by which the world disintegrates, whether good or bad.
“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.” This is the invitation to the re-creation of the body of the Son of God on earth. The Son of God abides in heaven: “Rejoice, ye heavens!” The son of perdition remains on earth: “Woe unto the inhabiters of the earth!” If we see woe putting in an appearance near and far, that is exactly the way it should be. We are not anxious to stop the woe. Human beings are attempting in their varied ways to do this.
One aspect of genetic engineering relates to a process of working with DNA to eliminate the existence of cells in the human body subject to disease—a very worthy objective, one might say. There are a lot of people who have been trying to do this for a long time with synthetic chemicals of various kinds. Others try to do it with vitamins and minerals; this latter is the “good” way of doing it! But perhaps this genetic engineering might also be looked upon as a good way of doing it. You can create a cell that will not tolerate cancer, for instance. That's good, isn't it? All it is is trying to defeat God, to make it so that man can survive and be healthy without God, without being man. Can you imagine a world populated with these healthy creatures? What destructiveness! It's bad enough now, and they're all falling apart! But if they were all filled with vibrant health, what terrible hell would ensue. We don't look for a way to defeat God, because that is self-destructive anyway. No matter how human beings try, there's always something that gets in the way of their objective; and the hoped-for result is always just a little over the horizon, because in fact it doesn't really exist—just imagination, a mirage.
What does exist is the Spirit of Father God and the Spirit of Mother God. No matter what has been done to the body of Mother God, the Spirit is untouched. That is the Spirit of Truth, which is part of our makeup of Spirit as individuals. It relates more particularly to what is subconscious. The Spirit of Father God makes possible restored consciousness, however not without the Spirit of Mother God being present. Here is what might be called a rebirth. We begin to see how nonsensical this idea that human beings have about being born again is—just a fancy; it's just a nonsensical mirage. And human beings remain exactly the same as they were before, subject to shame and to fear.
So we come ourselves into the acceptance of the way things really are, that in our own experience the body of the Son of God may grow and mature on earth. We ourselves share that experience. Here is what Christians have tended to call the second coming. The first coming was in the individual form. Now, if it is to be a reality it is through an adequate body of flesh, not just through one individual form; and we have the opportunity of sharing that. But we only share it when it becomes an absolute necessity in our own experience that it should be shared, so that there is nothing that can lure us again into the stance of the raper of the body of Mother God. If you really see that, we can understand how putrid the human state is; there is nothing right about it whatsoever; it is all filthy! Until there is that awareness we are going to imagine: “Well it could be fixed up a little. We still have some pretty good things humanly about us and we had better preserve those.” Nothing can be preserved, for the prince of this world is lost, is in the process of disintegration. Let there be the body of the Son of God present because we are here and the spirit of the Son of God is in expression in our daily living.
Janine Romaner offered spontaneous movement and George Hanson spoke an original poem, while Betsy Hanson improvised on piano.
Blessed is the spirit of truth,
The fountain of beauty.
Holy is our body,
The protector of Mother Earth.
Behold our purpose,
Sustaining sacred life.
George Hanson repeated some of the words in song, and the congregation joined him in a chant. The congregation stood and, while continuing the chant, joined in unison gesture with Janine. A lengthy period of silence followed.
Martin Exeter— Thy Body, O LORD, is present on earth to receive Thy command in each moment of living. Thy commands are written by Thy finger of Fire upon the tablets of our hearts, that these commands may govern in every aspect of our living, in every moment of our living. These words are spoken here in this Holy Place, but they are spoken in the Holy Place throughout Thy Body now present on earth to make possible the expression of Thy Spirit in the recreative processes by which Mother God, the form of Mother God, is restored to Thee.
