Martin Cecil April 13, 1978 Advanced Training Session
We have the opportunity of sharing an hour now, letting something emerge which is unique to this particular gathering, to this particular moment, and to the creative needs that are in focus now. We have a mutual awareness that whatever needs to be achieved from the standpoint of the Lord requires our spiritual expression. That is a rather general term at the moment, but we need to see that there is some very specific detail relative to spiritual expression. There may be a general effulgence: let your light so shine before men. We need to let the light shine. We need to exemplify the true character. But in that exemplification certain specific actions naturally emerge. We share the responsibilities, so we need to look at this matter of spiritual expression not only from the individual standpoint but from the standpoint of the whole.
We are moving away from prior patterns of earthly self-centeredness so that the whole of our expression of life is concerned with the overall fulfilment of Divine Purpose. We are no longer holding out little areas here and there in ourselves which we deem to be private and personal. If we do that, in those areas there is darkness, just a blank, a void. Where there are blanks and voids in our expression of living there could never be the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit is a whole spirit and it requires every aspect of our being. We are in no position to hold out anything of a personal nature, anything considered to be private to ourselves alone, and experience the reality of true spiritual expression.
True spiritual expression requires the presence and the release of the whole spirit, not bits and pieces. With human experience, for the most part the true spirit has been absent; and it is these absences that have caused the expression of something distorted—a distorted cause which has produced distorted effects. We cannot have true cause without expression of the whole spirit. So we need to understand something with respect to this in a more specific sense. First of all there is the necessity to realize that we cannot participate in the expression of the whole spirit, true spiritual expression, and still maintain personal and private areas in ourselves.
I'm not suggesting that one splatter all over the place the innermost factors in one's expression, but none of them are withheld from the Lord. Every aspect of one's own state of internal being is offered to the Lord for right use. We do not retain anything for ourselves, saying in effect that this is my own area, put up a private sign, “Keep Out!”—so that we continue to have something which is not a part of the wholeness of being. We cannot experience the reality of God while restricting the expression of God to particular areas of our own choosing; the choosing will be that of the mind and heart and restrictions will be placed upon the true expression of spirit. We can maintain these private places where we wish to keep something for ourselves.
The dissolving of barriers in this regard, so that everything opens up, is not something that has been required of anyone in a moment. All of you have been given quite a considerable time to allow these things to transpire—I don't think there is anyone here present who hasn't had plenty of time. If there are still restrictions and limitations and areas in one's own inner being which one has reserved for oneself this is an evidence of a failure to let time be used rightly.
“Step by step,” the Lord says, “You can do it step by step.” But there comes a time when all the steps have been taken. I would suggest that we are gathered here to prove that that time is now. I can see no other reason for our being here. This is not a class; in other words it is not so that you can take some more steps, putting off the final step as long as possible, which is what most people do. We are here to do what is only possible when the final step has been taken. And we don't need a class. We need a radiant session, where we gather together and experience the creative purpose for which we are all on earth, and for which we are all present in this particular setting now.
So there is this matter of spiritual expression. Looking at the unfoldment of spiritual events over this recent period of time [at least 4000 yearsall together, which would take us to about 2000 BC] there has been a provision in the experience of human beings for the release of true spiritual expression. We have seen this relative to the various Sacred Schools: the First, the Second, and now the Third. The objective in any one of these instances was to bring those concerned to the point of true spiritual expression. It has never happened yet. Presumably we are here to accept the responsibility of letting it happen now. And that is a very vast responsibility; it is not a little thing. On each occasion the means by which true spiritual expression could appear was True Spirit. The facility, insofar as human beings were concerned, had to be conditioned sufficiently, undergo sufficient re-creation, so that this True Spirit could come clear in expression, and not constantly be colored and distorted and changed by the faulty attitudes of human beings. But the means, power, by which the change could occur was always True Spirit, presented in various ways, differently insofar as each of these Sacred Schools was concerned.
In the First Sacred School the word used was Shekinah, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, the evidence of the Presence of True Cause. So the word Shekinah—Glory of the Lord—was used in that instance because it had particular application to the level of approach that was being made, the physical approach. And then it changed when the Second Sacred School came along, the mental approach, and the word used was the Christ: true spiritual expression. The Christ was revealed in a very specific sense on earth by reason of one man, so He is usually referred to as Jesus Christ. But the word Christ is not the surname of a man whose Christian name was Jesus; it simply indicates the evidence of true spiritual expression on earth, as it related particularly to the Second Sacred School. Then proceeding to the time of the Third Sacred School, where the approach is the spiritual expression approach directly, another word was used which has been translated in the Book of Revelation as the Lamb.
True spiritual expression is the experience of those who are moving from the standpoint of the spiritual expression plane approach directly. As there is the experience of true spiritual expression from this standpoint, obviously it directly effects the mind and the body; there is mental and physical effect. But the focus of True Cause is in true spiritual expression, and the concern is with that. It isn't a matter of building up towards it by establishing physical rules and regulations, or by the mental approach of trying to understand everything, but of discerning spiritually and living spiritually, living from the standpoint of spiritual expression now. So, the Lamb was the word that was used in this regard; and it is by reason of the Lamb, true spiritual expression, that what we call the restoration is made possible. The essential changes in the body and the consciousness of mankind are wrought by reason of the Lamb.
Now this is nice theory. It has been a theory for a long time, recorded in the Book of Revelation. In our recent Sunday services we were considering a few verses at the beginning of the fourth chapter of Revelation, relative to a door being opened in heaven, and allowing something to be experienced because there was response, and obedience to the words, “Come up hither.” This allows us to have an experience of something that is described in earthly terms. I’ll read one part of that description: “a throne set in heaven” and “one who sat upon the throne”. There is never any description of the One who sits upon the Throne other than to indicate that He was like something or other, because the One who sits upon the Throne is actually not a part of the dimensional scene. There is the undimensional state, the state of God, and the One who sits upon the Throne originates in that undimensional state.
What is initially emerging in the dimensional state is described in rather fanciful terms. There were Four-and-Twenty Elders around the Throne, and there were Seven Lamps of Fire, which are the Seven Spirits of God before the Throne. There was theSea of Glass like unto crystal before the Throne. And the Four Beasts, or Four Living Creatures, which were in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne. These Living Creatures indicate the composition of the Throne itself—in the midst of the Throne and round about the Throne. Here was the initial dimensional manifestation of the authority of God, described in these rather strange terms; earthly terms have to be used to describe heavenly things, and they don't work too well; although they give us something of a view of what is present to permit the authority of God to emerge from the undimensional realm into the dimensional state. There is a reason, there is a way, there is a means by which everything happens. We need to associate ourselves with that. So there are these various elements described relative to the design of authorityin heaven—this is all a description in heaven.
I have covered the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation. My concern is to move into the fifth chapter where there is a repetition of some of what is contained in the fourth, but in a little different way. I will read some of it here: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.”
This book, we could call the Book of Life, which has been sealed from human experience ever since what has been called the fall. The absence of the Book of Life has produced the presence of the book of death—the “Book of the Dead”, and nothing whatsoever of any value comes out of it. What does come out of it could be said to be the actual experience of human beings in the world, the experience of being dying souls. Because dying is so prevalent it seems as though it is important that one should pay attention to it, that one should begin to really understand just why one should go through this process and what is being gained by it, and how one may handle it successfully. But you are well aware that the real purpose is to live, not to die. So why study death? Why not pay attention to life? And that is our primary concern. But we need to emerge out of the conditioned human state where death is dominant.
Now the purpose here is, with respect to this book, to loose the seals, as this relates to the human state. The book, you will note, was written within and on the backside. The backside relates to those experiences before the fall, when the Book of Life was open. The Book of Life was open at that time, and so what occurred was written on the frontside of the book. But by now it is the backside of the book—a long time ago; and even though it is written on the backside, because of the seals it cannot be read. Human beings don't know what happened. They have been frantically trying to understand their origins, their roots, in various ways, but there is always a wall. They can't get past this barrier which is unassailable by reason and logic alone. People develop theories of various sorts, but the theories are not true; nothing is sure. Human beings are still looking; they hopefully look further out; perhaps they will find it out there in the far reaches of the universe. But there is no by which human beings in their present state can discover the true story. The true story has been told to a certain extent, in a very limited way, in myth, one thing and another of that nature. But what happened before the fall is a complete blank. There is no admission in a general sense, certainly not in a scientific sense, that there ever was a fall because there is an absolute barrier there that no one can get behind. This book is written on the backside—it is all there, it's all been written—but the book is sealed. So nobody gets to read it. No man, no matter how spiritual or how scientific or anything else, gets to read it. The book it is sealed.
And it is also written within—inside. Our concern is that the seals should be loosed so that what is inside can come out. What was available in true spiritual expression for human beings ever since the fall has been written in each moment within, but it never got out. The Book of Life, the experience of life, has not been known consequently. The only experience that human beings have is of dying. This is the case since the first point of failure. And it has been so long-standing now that it is taken as being the natural and inevitable thing. The restoration to the true state of man as a living soul requires that these seals should be loosed so that what is inside the book can come out. When what is inside the book begins to come out then there begins to be some understanding of what was written on the backside. The question arises as to how these seals are to be loosed seeing that nobody can loose them.
Of course, where human beings think of themselves as being supreme and all-important and all-wise, if human beings can't open this book, well, nobody else can. And if nobody else can it must be just a figment of fancy; and the whole thing is consigned to a state of limbo in human experience. But as it continues here there is evidence that there is a means by which the seals can be loosed: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” Here is a reference to what was achieved by reason of the One called Jesus on earth, in relationship to Himself.
We have taken note of the fact that the only way by which anything could be salvaged from the failure of the Second Sacred School was as this One Man accepted the responsibility of everything into Himself, because there was no other body available by which it could be done other than His own. He represented in His own body and earthly consciousness the whole of humanity. He stood alone. He was alone in this. And there was a victory. The seals were loosed in the individual sense. And so there was a point of victory established on earth, available for the subsequent right use of those who would let it be used rightly. It has, in a way, been dormant for the last two thousand years, although, like the leaven, working underneath so that something could emerge at the point of the Third Sacred School.
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.” The right hand is the positive hand, the hand of action. Here is the means by which True Cause [in the unidimensional realm] can begin to operate in the dimensional realm. The dimensional realm is all a realm of effects. But when True Cause generates effects in the heaven aspect of the dimensional realm, the heaven aspect of the dimensional realm becomes the expression of True Cause insofar as the earth aspect of the dimensional realm is concerned, and the earth aspect becomes a realm of effects relative to the heaven aspect.
For this to happen there is the necessity for loosing the seals and opening the book. This is achieved by reason of the presence of the Lamb, true spiritual expression. But the spiritual expression of whom? We have referred to the Archangel as a means of identifying the One who incarnatesin the manifest form which is our responsibility to allow to appear. It appears because of the incarnation of the Archangel—nothing could happen otherwise.Using the word Archangel, we could say that here is One who has the responsibility of true spiritual expression—the expression of the One who is incarnating in this Body. But that true expression won't come out through the Body unless the seals are loosed. To the extent that those seals are loosed in His Body, and the consciousness of that Body, then there is a means by which the seals may be loosed in the body and consciousness of mankind as a whole.
We begin to see that we have a very particular responsibility in this matter [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-final-step.html], making possible the loosing of these seals. We may begin to understand as we move along in the days to come more of what is implied when this term is used, “the loosing of the seals”. Heretofore, the inference was that it related to the endocrine system in the physical body, combined with the various aspects that relate thereto in the nervous system—and this certainly is related to the matter. But we need to have a much larger vision than the individual physical body. We are not going to achieve very much, at least beyond a certain point, insofar as individual physical bodies are concerned unless there is some means by which the seals can be loosed in the Collective Body. We have seen the necessity of being totally given to true spiritual expression as individuals. Therefore it is not a personal matter anymore; it becomesa matter of the whole. And what happens personally to those concerned is of secondary concern, and will automatically take care of itself because of what is happening in the whole.
Unless there is a whole, in the sense of the physical and mental manifestation there is no means by which anything can happen. There is what corresponds to the endocrine system in this Collective Whole. The collective whole must be adequately in manifestation if those seals are to be loosed. As long as human beings are fiddling around as individuals, imagining that they have some great thing to do as isolated persons, nothing happens. It is only when this larger Body begins to be a reality that something can be brought to bear. So the Lamb refers, first of all, to the focus point of spiritual expression in that Body, but it includes the differentiation of that spiritual expression through those angels who compose that Body. It is this differentiated spiritual expression brought to bear in a very specific sense in the body and consciousness of mankind that permits the seals to be loosed in that larger body. So we begin to recognize that while this wording here may have seemed to be rather obscure, it has a very pertinent and relevant relatedness to our own immediate experience. Whether we describe what is to be known in that experience in these terms or some other earthly terms is really of little consequence. The point is to have the experience.
This that we are about: the differentiation of the Spirit of the Archangel through our unique, individual angelic expression. And this allows for a wholeness of spiritual expression because, regardless of how many more will properly participate in this Body, there are sufficient present now to cover all aspects of differentiation. The differentiation may continue in greater detail, but there is sufficient present in those angels who now participate in this form to permit the whole of true spiritual expression, the essences of which are in focus in the Archangel, to be differentiated in a rounded sense. Now there is greater detail to occur, but there is this base from which to work.
Each angel has the responsibility of carrying the differentiation of one specific aspect of that spirit into expression in all that is undertaken in momentary living. And we need to see more particularly what this really implies. We have some awareness of it now; we have some experience of it now. And we know that many things transpire that we couldn't have figured out with our own minds, we couldn't have brought to pass by our own efforts. And in fact these things have transpired when we weren't trying to do it on that basis. And if we have been trying to do it on that basis, well, not much has happened because what should have happened is blocked. This cuts us down to size in the human sense because all we can do is interfere. So let's get with it.
This book has been taken from the right hand of the one who sits upon the Throne, and is the responsibility of the Archangel whose spirit is the Spirit of the Body for which we have been responsible to give form and to differentiate that spirit. We see that all of this is totally above and beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend or do anything about. It doesn't know anything insofar as this realm is concerned. It can come to know what it needs to know when it is a good servant and willing to move on the basis of the spirit which is being differentiated. When that happens then what needs to be known can be known. We can know something of these things in this hour, can't we? Here is something that is opening up to the extent that we have been in the spirit, and the mind has been sufficiently yielded so that it can move with what is moving in the spirit—and then it sees. But if it tries to see by grabbing hold of anything it looses the vision; it gets lost. I'm sure that you have found on occasion that you became lost. You were moving along fine for a little and then you became lost because your mind started to take hold of something, and it has various effects—sometimes somnolence is one of them. There is a reason for all these things.
I rejoice in the privilege of clarifying the field of our responsibility. Obviously, in opening this area for further movement you become aware that there is a vastness about it. But if you let your feelings get in there it could be devastating. It is something tremendous, but it is all under control. The Archangel is present, and incarnate, and in expression. The individual expression of all of you as angels is simply a differentiation of that. So it is all held together; it is all one thing. It is all strong, stable, sure. As we find increased ability to participate in this unified spiritual expression we find that the power is moving, and that others who are not specifically in this point of focus for which we are responsible here, are moving with us whether they consciously know why or not. So let us continue to allow this to unfold by being very much aware in our momentary living of the responsibility for what it is that is finding expression.
On this Sunday morning, May 2, 1954, we gather in the Chapel on Sunrise Ranch with a deep spirit of thanksgiving to God for all His many blessings, and particularly the blessing of moisture by which the earth has been replenished. And now we know that with the coming again of the warmth, the sunlight by which the earth is warmed, the seeds will sprout and the plants will grow and the earth shall be covered with a garment of green, which is the garment of life. With this spirit of thanksgiving in our hearts let us have a moment of devotion.
Our Gracious LORD, our Holy KING, hallowed is Thy Name to us, and yielding to Thy Spirit we would let Thy Kingdom come and let Thy Will be done in earth as it is in heaven, that Thy seasons of fulfilment may appear and that the haphazard, uncertain seasons of man may no longer control in the cycles of outworking in Thy service in the earth. For we would remember, and in all things reveal, the reality that Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, now and forever, in the Christ. Aumen.
Our purpose here is to be, or to learn to be, servers in our Master's harvest field. As servers it is our responsibility to reach a point in understanding, in capacity, where we may help others to accept and to pass through essential periods of cleansing by which there may be a renewing in body and mind and heart. We realize that if we are to reach a point where we can help others be made new we ourselves must first lead the way in the experience of letting the cleansing be a reality and the process of renewing be a fact in form. As we realize the need for this deeper cleansing, that we may by faith be made every whit whole, we are in position to begin to accept and receive that power of God by which such fulfilment may be known. We have in recent meditation considered something of the reality of Father God and of Mother God. To the end that we may allow the manifestation of God on earth we would in all things so yield that each in his or her appointed place, and according to the Divine Provision of capacity, do that which is needful to the revelation of God on earth, which is to say, the revelation of Father God and the revelation of Mother God.
As we pause to meditate upon these things, our thoughts turn to the basic application of the One Law by which essential building or creating may appear and by which essential cleansing may be maintained, for as we consider the matter, we realize that God provided a means of cleansing and that that means of cleansing was ordained to function in the ideal state. A certain amount of cleansing is essential at every level of being, in heaven above or in earth beneath. If, as in illness, the cleansing process has not been adequate, and there appears to be a special need for cleansing, the functions of this process must in the sense of that which may be observed in form become dominant; and yet in the sense of actual function, in the sense of that which is actually at work in both the visible and invisible realms, this function of cleansing must never be allowed to become dominant. What do I mean by these words?
If the evidence in outer form is distorted and failing to function according to the fulness of life, that which is evident is a dominant need for cleansing; but if we try to achieve this cleansing without regard to the dual function of the Law we will fail, and in this mankind has been most successful, most successful in failing, and it is for us to change the tide. Let us consider the principle—it is the principle of pulsation. We see this principle at work in our bodies, in the respiratory system. We inhale and we exhale. The inhalation of what is presumed to be pure air provides the body with the needed oxygen, and in the exhalation there is the expulsion that allows for a cleansing away of those things which must not be allowed to accumulate in the body. In a perfectly healthy condition this elimination of matter that ought not to be is constant. We see this pulsation at work in breathing; we see it in the heart, the pulsations by which the life-fluids, the life-stream, is caused to move in arteries and veins. We see the provision of that which permits the building, and we see the provision of that which permits the cleansing away of refuse. We see this cycle of pulsation in relationship to the alimentary canal; we eat and we allow the elimination of refuse. The principle of pulsation.
It is needful that we begin to realize that, regardless of the form, whether from the single-celled amoeba or the complex human being, the application of the One Law in relationship to form, here or anywhere, is on the basis of pulsation. If the ebb and the flow ceases at any point there is the cessation of the manifestation of life in the form at that point. The working of the Law in any form, at any level, is by reason of pulsation. If there is at any point the positive expanding expression and then the negative form fails to respond thereto, at that point there is death. Whether in the amoeba, in the nucleus, or in the sun, in the solar system, there is the expanding expression of the positive element in radiation in the release of the positive forces of being. But those forces of being do not become power, in the sense of the living of life in form, until there is the response thereto in the negative aspect of the form. It is this pulsation between the positive aspect and the negative aspect that provides the Current of Life. If there be the positive outflowing and then an inadequate, weak, uncertain response in return, there is weakness, there is illness, and the life forces do not manifest as power in living.
Anything which inhibits the response pattern to the positive pulsations inhibits the expression of life in the form. The forms through which the pulsing rhythms move extend from the single cell to the solar system and on beyond, and we are in between. There is a great lesson to be learned by those who are wise, in the fact that humanity after twenty thousand years of the fallen state still suffers as it does. The positive pulsations in radiation from God the Center have been rhythmic and certain in all their cycles, large and small, through all these centuries, through all the millennia, but God, with all of His power, could not force humanity to receive and respond adequately. There has been some receiving and a little response or the body of mankind would have perished from the face of the earth, but it has been inadequate receiving, an inadequate response. In desperation human beings would let a little more of the response appear, do a little more receiving, and then again become self-sufficient, self-satisfied, arrogant, self-willed and self-active at a level which was not more than a tenth of what could have been, and in season must be. Man accepted a level, above which he has refused thus far to move, because he has not accepted the pulsing rhythms of being in the working of the Law through his own form, and he has contented himself with barely existing instead of opening to that which is, and permitting himself to know the resurrection and the life by which he might share the full strong rhythms of the heartbeat of the Body of God.
As we consider these things, we realize that the response factor in the Body of God, in the Being of God, belongs to Mother God; the positive radiation factor belongs to Father God; and the pulsations between provide the Field of Being, the field of living, the field of attainment, achievement, fulfilment, the realm of creation.
We realize that we cannot comprehend that which we do not allow to manifest within ourselves in some way.
We cannot comprehend anything of any level which is not allowed expression through ourselves.
It must appear through form on earth.
We have as the body of humanity had that uneasiness, that insecurity, that restlessness, which gave evidence of the absence of Mother God. We have perceived something of the pulsing, positive expression of being from God but we have allowed so little of the vigorous response thereto to appear in our lives that we could not see or know here on earth that which would have given this realm of creation the spirit and the nature of Home, the true expression and manifestation of Mother God. If we are to share in the full, free rhythms of life, we must let the cleansing take place without allowing this dominant need to become the dominant factor in consciousness, for that is where human beings fail.
You who have functioned as servers know full well how it is that human beings allow their consciousness to be so filled with their aches and their pains, their needs and their difficulties, the things they think they do not have, that they have no means of allowing the positive expression of being, which they cannot yet see, have true control in their lives. There is in the sense of the form, the outer evidence, the dominant need for the healing, for the cleansing, for the correction of the ill conditions, but if that dominant need is permitted to become the dominant aspect in consciousness, the healing, the cleansing, cannot take place. This that is the dominant need in the outer form must be relinquished to the control point in an attitude of trust and faith, so that even though it is there, as far as the consciousness of the individual is concerned it becomes a secondary factor. The need for the centering in God, the need for the fulfilment of the whole, the need for rising above all personal and petty limitations, must become the dominant factor in consciousness, otherwise the human capacities of being are not permitted to share and make manifest in form, where they can be perceived, seen and known and experienced, the positive pulsations of God Being by which this need may be cleared.
To convince human beings of this one point is the most difficult thing in our whole ministry. The human vision sees the need, is centered there, and the human consciousness becomes so filled with that that it is not aware, and has no means of becoming aware, of anything else. So the ill condition continues and worsens until the form is lost. But recognizing the need for cleansing, or healing, or growth, or development, or fulfilment, for all the things which we recognize as being necessary, seeing them and acknowledging the need, we must let them become completely and utterly secondary.
Now if we deny the need when it is present and try to function from the standpoint of the positive God Being we will fail. We must acknowledge this need. If by reason of human pride we shut our eyes to it, if by reason of concepts of human self-sufficiency we deem ourselves to be sufficient and adequate and we say, “I am not going to let all of these needs bother me; I am going to function from the standpoint of positive God,” what happens? The same old thing that has worked out in human history in various forms over and over again. We have accomplished nothing. We have not risen above the ceiling under which man has been struggling with his ten percent or less of fulfilment.
We must see these needs, we must face them, we must accept them, we must acknowledge them. If we try to deny them or imagine that they are not present, or refuse to face them by reason of human pride, we fail. We must face them, we must acknowledge them, we must recognize them, but having done so, we must let them take the secondary position, not the dominant position. Having so acknowledged, we must then set these needs aside, as it were, and let our whole consciousness become centered in that which is dominant—not even our personal need for salvation. If the sense of a personal need of salvation remains dominant, that person remains damned.
We must face the need, we must acknowledge it, accept it, we must not in any sense deny it, but having reached that point, we must then take the next step and let our concern for development, progress, personal fulfilment in any way, shape or form, with respect to salvation or fulfilment in any degree or realm, become completely secondary, completely so in relationship to our centering and response for the benefit of the whole, for the fulfilment in any place or time or way by reason of the positive radiation from God, from Center, from Core, from Nucleus, from whatever we wish to say that represents the positive elements of being in action.
Then the human mind will not be trying to direct and control the uses of the positive outflow;
for as long as the mind, seeing the need, attempts to control and use the positive outflow,
for good causes surely,
that person is defeated by his own function.
You say, “I accept the positive current from God”; but you want to determine how it shall be used, what shall be fulfilled in yourself or in another, when and how; and you will fail. This is the breakdown—for human beings have been through the centuries refusing to let the will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven. Having acknowledged the need on earth and seen the condition for what it is, faced the issues honestly and squarely, we then yield to the positive outflow, unconcerned as to whether the fulfilment comes in someone over there, in the clearing of that condition first, in whatever manner whatsoever, through whom, when or how—not demanding one thing for ourselves, not requiring one speck from the standpoint of position or fulfilment or healing, not requiring anything for ourselves but actually rejoicing, in a completely selfless joy, in the response and the outworking, the fulfilment, the manifestation out here, anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances, through any person.
If when there begins to be a fulfilment in some person over here we rejoice, then we share—but if we say, “Such and such a person is being put ahead. Such and such a person is receiving such a blessing. I ought to have that blessing. I am hurt,” on the basis of human reaction and pride we stiffen up and cease yielding to the positive power. Then the breach gets wider and wider and wider, and that person who is suffering from human pride becomes more and more meaningless, until he either wakes up and responds anew or passes from the scene of things.
These pulsations are here and we have to learn to recognize and work on the basis of the pulsations. When there is the responding inflow to God the human being tends to remain rigid, unresponsive, and he says in that condition, “I want to feel the positive power of God. I am trying so hard to feel the positive power of God and I can't feel it,” and he passes by the inflowing. And then the cycle of God, the Season of God for the outflowing from God comes, and he has this positive pattern—he has failed to yield in the pulsation—and he is pushed a little further away, and a little further away. Two positives repel each other. And the cycle works and the cleansing continues.
If we insist on the right to be foreign objects in the body of the amoeba we will be pushed right out sooner or later. This pulsation, whether its rhythm is one second or one year, depending upon the cycle, is beside the point. That pulsing rhythm is there, in some places moving at a very high rate, in others a long, slow pulsation. We might say it takes twenty-four hours for the double cycle of the pulsation to work out in relationship to the tides of the sea. There is the stronger one and the lesser one every twelve hours, but the full cycle, the double pulsation, twenty-four hours. Now if man became rambunctious and said, “These tides ought to run every twenty-four minutes. I don't see why God didn't make them run every twenty-four minutes. I want it that way,” we would say, “How foolish can man be?” The tide is here, this is the rhythm, let us work with it.
That is what is meant by working with the Law, that is to say working in and with the pulsations of the Law; not according to the seasons and the times of man's self-determination, but according to the seasons and the times and the cycles of the pulsation as God has already established it.
If we try to change it we may say, “Oh I am trying to apply the One Law,” but it will amount to nothing. You are not going to change the pulsing seasons of God's ordaining. We either accept that and work with it or we fail, struggle as the human being may—and we have twenty thousand years back of us, six or seven thousand years of recorded history full of the evidence that it does not pay to ignore the One Law. But in what way do we ignore the One Law? We ignore it in the patterns of its manifestation through the pulsing cycles of its expression. Work with the Law. Do not try to set the Law up yourself as if you were God. That is what caused the fall in the first place. You are going to be positive, you are going to use the One Law, you are going to initiate the positive pulsations and expect the negative response to appear? You are going to do it? You are going to be as God? It will not work.
The pulsations are already established
They are already here with respect to every little cycle and every big one. All we have to do is to perceive them and coordinate with them and then we are working with the Law. But if we ignore those pulsations and try to establish our own rhythms we are trying to be as God and we will surely fail. But if we will accept the pulsations that are, little or large, and work with them, then we will be sharing in and with God the expression of God Being, and the proper cycle of response to the positive radiation of Father God will appear through us and we will begin to know Mother God. And knowing Mother God, we will begin to be at Home on earth where God has placed us. So it is that the Kingdom comes. So it is that all fulfilments are possible. Anything that disregards these already established pulsations, which is to say, the control factors, the Kingdom factors.
The Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand is what? The pulsing rhythms of the operation of the Law in all the cycles of being and creation all around us. We conform with them and we know what it is to share God's creative work. We ignore them, and seek to establish our own, and we fail. It is the Law, and no man can alter or change it. Man can reject it and refuse to work with it and destroy himself. Each must make his own choice.
But these pulsing rhythms of being are present everywhere, and we have the responsibility of receiving from God the positive radiation, of responding thereto, and doing what?—and giving it back to God. When children play ball—two little ones playing toss, shall we say—one throws the ball and the other is supposed to return it. If the one who receives it takes it and walks off with it, no ball game. God tosses the ball to you. You receive it and don't toss it back, you walk off with it; you are going to do something, something big; but no ball game, just like that. Or perhaps God tosses it to you and you don't even catch it; you just let it go on by, you ignore it, and you say, “When is God going to throw me the ball? I will stand here. I will be patient. I will keep my eyes shut so I never see God throw it, but I will wait.” We must be alert.
We must begin to perceive, to sense, to feel and to know the pulsations from God and to work with them. That is the Secret of Life, the secret of fulfilment, and as we feel it coming from God, filling us, do we say, “Well now I am beginning to feel something. I am surely going to have to use this”? What are you going to do with it? Like self-active Peter did so long ago, go out and start using? Or are you going to hold steady and let it fill your being and thrill your being, until you cannot contain it any longer and give it back to God, and then let it come? It begins to appear and fills, becomes higher and higher, until you are filled, and then it goes over the top and back to God.
Over and over again, in every little cycle, in every big one, you receive; but you cannot respond in the sense of true expression the minute you begin to receive. You have to let yourself be filled, and then there is the overflow. And what do you do with it? You try to use it here? You try to do that with it? Or do you give it back to God, let it flow back?—receiving and responding.
What is responding? Responding is just receiving on an open, yielded pattern until, being filled, you reach the absolute limit of your capacity to receive and you give it back to God—the ebb and the flow, the pulsing working of the Law. And you accept the cycles. You do not try to change them, and you work with them. You do not cut yourself off by human pride or self-activity. You let the will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven, and you acknowledge the reality that “Thine is the Kingdom.” Well where is the Kingdom? Your body, your whole being, with all of its capacities. And “Thine is the Power” that fills the Kingdom until it can contain no more. And then, “Thine is the Glory,” the wonder and the beauty of the return of that to God. And you have become a part of the ebb and the flow, the pulsation of life, and in it all things work together to perfection, because those who are in it Love and Serve the LORD.
Our Gracious KING, we thank Thee for Thy loving invitation, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” We would yield and learn to be open and responsive to the positive power of Thy Being, that being filled to the full the returning pulsation of response may establish the pattern of our relationship with Thee. For Thine is the Kingdom. And we remember Thy Word, “Thy Kingdom come.” We are the Kingdom. Thine is the Kingdom. The Kingdom belongs to Thee. And we are the Kingdom and we would receive the positive power of Thy Radiation, until, being filled, we come unto Thee not empty-handed but filled to overflowing, that the returning cycle to Thee may have meaning. And then we wait upon Thee and let the cycle be repeated, over and over again, that we may share the Pulsations of Being, the Pulsations of Creation, the Rhythm of Deity expressing through all the Cosmos, the Music of the Spheres, the coming of the Kingdom in Power and in Glory, the Kingdom yielded up to the Positive Centering in the KING. O Father, we thank Thee that it is so, and shall be so, in and through and for all who yield to Thee and let Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Aumen.
There has been some progress made in relationship to the unifying of our spirit and our pattern of endeavor. We have made progress toward reaching a point of agreement on earth. The agreement is not yet what it can be, what it should be, in fact what it must be if we are to succeed. Nevertheless there has been some very definite progress, which I would acknowledge, and the degree to which you have held steady and remained true to our basic pattern of agreement has made possible a level of achievement which has been unknown heretofore in our experience. However, we must be careful not to develop a sense of resting on our laurels—from my standpoint we have not acquired any yet. But I have been wondering, if we took an hour of our meditation time for a consideration of your specific function in relationship to my responsibilities, whether we could not find a more effective pattern still. In approaching this subject I recognize the vital necessity of finding the right words, to avoid developing misunderstandings, the right words through which the current of the spirit may work in establishing a deeper realization.
In the world as it is, with conditions as they are, we must face the fact that there is always, with respect to all things, a price to pay. Very often human beings pay a great price for that which turns out to be “fool's gold,” of no value. In other instances we may have reasonably legitimate desires in various forms which, by reason of the circumstances in the face of the necessities of our service, we must set aside. In this field particularly, the basis of evaluation depends upon what is best for the whole. What can we do that will make it possible for all who share in the service of the Lord, whoever, wherever they may be, to carry through into the higher level of life and service?
Personal sacrifice which permits forward movement in the fulfilment of the whole is not actually, for those who are dedicated, a sacrifice. The point is: no matter what we do, no matter what course we may choose, we are going to pay a price. For everything which we receive we exchange something. We have to give something in exchange for the privilege of receiving the air we breathe. We have to give the energy, if nothing else. The gifts of God are given freely, and yet we must pay a price in order to receive those gifts. We must give something in exchange. We cannot receive God's love unless we give our love to God. Wherever we turn, with respect to everything, there is an exchange basis.
I have wondered if, by some means, I could convey to you something of the working of this principle in the ideal state, in a manner which would be of value to us in the present. As we look back to the days in the Motherland and consider the state of those who were not subject to the limitations of the fall, we will find this same principle applies. I mentioned to you the fact that although there were great schools, and there was an opportunity for anyone and everyone to go as high as his or her capacities might allow, in the sense of education, there were many who did not avail themselves of the opportunity to go very far in that educational program. They found a level which, for the time being at least, was satisfactory to themselves in the face of this matter of exchange. To gain one thing, even in the ideal state, it is necessary to give up something else. I do not know how to clearly portray in any detail the situation as it was then, but we might conceivably illustrate.
A certain person, living in a place with ideal climatic conditions, say, on what we might call a little acreage, where the necessities of life were not very demanding, having shared up to a point in the educational program—which might be said to correspond really with, oh, university graduates of today—might be reluctant to give up the opportunity to remain in that quiet place with the friends acquired, the privilege of going fishing when he wanted to, so to speak—not that there was fishing as we think of it, but a certain freedom, a certain ability to live a rather carefree life. In order to achieve a higher level of life expression he would have to give that up, go to school some more, and accept greater responsibility. With privilege there is always responsibility. For those who were willing to pay the price of moving out of one pattern of being, relinquishing one set of circumstances, putting forth the effort, expending the time, providing the application, the diligence, and developing the willingness to accept and discharge responsibility, there was absolutely unlimited opportunity. There was no barrier except that which the individual accepted for himself, that which was to him a balance point. When he reached a point that gave him as many responsibilities as he felt like accepting, he had established the level of his privilege.
The same principles hold true today, only today there is an inclination on the part of human beings to try to have privilege without accepting basic responsibility. Such an attitude is a distortion. Each one must face the question for himself as to where that level shall be for himself—the level where desire or longing for greater achievement shall balance out with a willingness to put forth the effort to make that achievement possible, the level where responsibility and privilege come to a true balance. In the ideal condition the percentage of those who carried forward to the higher levels was always adequate to the need of the program. Today, working in the sphere of fallen man, this is not the case. There are those who would like to have what they deem to be the higher privileges of higher position, who nevertheless do not show forth the inclination or the ability to accept the higher responsibility.
We have made a beginning. If the human mind, in self-active function, begins to attempt to evaluate or measure the task yet remaining, the mind begins to feel overwhelmed with the vastness of the task. And yet comparatively simple measures can be utilized to exert a very powerful influence into the world. But if we are to have power we must accept the right pattern of responsibility in relationship to the uses of that power. To whatever degree self-centeredness remains we have, in relationship to this higher level of function, a bad risk. If a person functions on a temperamental basis—he feels like it one day and not the next—then those who come in the range of his influence in the current of power will be subject to the whims and fancies of the way he feels, and no one has the right to subject others to any such thing. If we cannot accept the responsibility of the right uses of power, we should not have the privilege of the exercise of power. This is just as true with respect to God's power as it is true with respect to temporal power, earthly power or authority. If we are going to achieve that point of basic agreement which will permit us to accomplish that which must be done if we are to be successful, we are going to have to be willing to pay the price. We are going to have to examine the situation and make some deliberate choices, be willing to set aside various things with respect to our own inclinations or tendencies, in order to achieve something else.
The ability to center attention and hold it centered,
to devote one's energies to a single point on a controlled basis in a creative field,
according to a specific design, with a singleness of purpose,
in harmony with the absolute principle of Being—
this is required of us.
To so achieve, we must be ready to set aside, as being of lesser value, certain other things which we may think we would like to do, certain other things which may, according to various reasonable viewpoints, be considered perfectly legitimate; and yet, they must be set aside as being of lesser value. A short-sighted policy may make a person feel that the greater value to self is of the greatest value to the whole, because he may say to himself, “If I achieve thus and so, then that will be of value to others. I will be leading; I will be setting an example; I will be lifting the world of man.” And it may seem so. And yet, if this same individual, doing something that may appear to be perfectly legitimate, had the capacity, the ability, the willingness to set aside this effort in personal achievement, to disregard the various concepts of his own fulfilment in order to do something else for the whole, he would have actually had a greater personal achievement than he could have on the other basis. This begins to suggest a distinction.
Often I am faced with the necessity of making certain suggestions to others, to help others make decisions. I have many, many times seen human beings set forth a possible course of action which in all ordinary respects was perfectly legitimate—definitely of service, a path that involved a certain amount of individual fulfilment, and it could be said to be of value in many, many ways—but the individual's consciousness is more or less lost in this which he sees as a potential. And I have seen, in such cases, instance after instance where, if the person involved were capable of seeing and accepting a different course, he would actually be of much greater service to God, to mankind and to himself. But he does not leave the door open to give himself an opportunity to even see that course of service. He has centered his desire and his determination, and so usually I don't even mention the alternate course as I see it. Usually there is no opening to do so. The price to be paid in such a case seems too high; it looks to the individual as if he would be sacrificing something infinitely worthwhile for something definitely questionable. And so, as long as the person feels that way about it, I cannot encourage—not too strongly—following some other course.
We could take the case of our membership. I look out and I see instance after instance of individuals who are apparently content, probably not satisfied but for the time being content to function at, well, a comparatively small percentage of meaningfulness in the Lord's service in comparison to that which could so easily be. I suggest that we could do more, and yet when I say it, the general tendency is to feel, “Well, I don't see how I could do very much more.” And the individual starts setting up some kind of a resistance pattern. Yet, no matter what is said along such lines, I have to come back and say, “We could be doing a great deal more than we are, in the sense of the effectiveness in the Lord's service, if we would just do it.” I am not talking about something beyond the scope of our capacities. I am not talking about something beyond our abilities. I am talking about something we could do if we would. I am faced with the fact that there is no way in the world that I can compel you to move any higher, to do more, to fulfil your responsibilities more effectively. There is absolutely no way. And if I could, I would not attempt it. It is only if I can inspire you to do so, and encourage you; but you have to accept it for yourself. And I'm not talking about something impossible. Maybe you say, “But I can't see it.” I can. I can see it, and I know. I doubt if any of you are satisfied. But how can we be content to go along in this unsatisfied state, so far from the fulfilment of our potential?
Within the range of what could now be done it is a far cry from what we could be achieving in the sense of actual accomplishment, in the sense of shaping the future of the world's vibrational pattern, in the sense of truly serving the Lord, of being a blessing to people far and near, of feeding the hungry ones and giving of the water of life to the thirsty ones. And I see some little human quirk or determination, such puny little things, stand in the way of that greater fulfilment—things that are utterly unworthy of us here, human determinations this way or that, or the plain refusal to accept a larger responsibility. And I have no way of compelling it; I cannot give orders—and yet I see the vast need, the crying need.
There are blessings flowing out into the world because we are here, but you are as yet unconscious of even a large part of that, because we have not established a true basic pattern of agreement—true accord. You could have a larger consciousness of the result of what you are doing if you would let it work out correctly, but I cannot force the issue. For each one it comes out at a certain point of balance with respect to privilege and responsibility. Some are attempting to gain or take more privilege than their responsibility warrants. Well, it may seem to be something one can get away with for a while, but it will not last very long. There will be a tumble. Sometimes it may seem to the human vision that there isn't as much privilege as the discharge of responsibility warrants; but if the individual is particularly concerned on the point, he shows that he is not discharging as much responsibility as he thinks he is.
There are certain things that I would like very, very much to share with you. I have been considering for some time the possibility of our setting aside one of our evening periods of meditation each week for specific purposes in radiation, so that you might consciously share with me in the work of meeting certain issues in the world, or exerting certain influences. And yet, every time I think that perhaps we are drawing near to it, certain factors work out which say, in effect, “Not yet, not yet. You will have to wait awhile.” They tell me I will have to wait awhile, the time is not yet. All of these steps forward are, and must be, absolutely voluntary. There are places of responsibility that need to be filled, crying for someone to do a job [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-final-step.html], and yet vibrationally, wherever they are, I must say, “I have no one to put there; no one is ready. I can't do it. You will have to wait.” And so often I hear sounding through the vibratory pattern, the mental, emotional pattern of the world, “How long, O Lord, how long must we wait?” And what can I answer? What can I say? I release the current: “Hold it steady, be patient, take advantage of all your opportunities; in season, as you hold steady, the fulfilment will come.” And all that is true.
But so far we are not functioning on the basis of the seasons of God; we are functioning on the basis of the seasons of man—when the human being gets ready: “When I get good and ready, then I'll do it.” If we were working on the basis of the seasons of God it would be so much nicer, so much more wonderful, so much more a sense of fulfilment. But we have never made the changeover yet, from functioning on the basis of the seasons of man to the basis of the seasons of God. And I cannot compel it. I cannot give orders and achieve it. Some may be saying in their hearts, “Well what can I do?” I know you really want to do something to speed it up. Well the most important thing any of you can do now is to so function that we can begin to have one night a week—one out of seven—set apart for service in the vibrational sphere.
I have considered the possibility of actually doing that, and making the first nights a particularized training period—the first ones would have to be a training period. But if I were to establish that, with things as they are now, recognizing that our pattern of action is taking responsibility for many others besides ourselves, I would be forced, by that very action, to hold to a specific standard. And if such and such a person did not live up to that standard, did not deliver, I would have to say, “You have flunked; step out,” and I would not like that. But if we started, I would have no choice. So we have not started it. We have devoted our time to meditation on the basis that has been, and I have sought to provide the inspiration, direction, the expansion of consciousness essential to reaching that point. And we are not there yet. It had to wait. It had to wait, and so the seasons are under the control of man, not of God, in relationship to these vital things of future fulfilment. And to me the reasons for this delay are so inadequate.
If someone were to say to you, “Come into Loveland tomorrow at ten o'clock and you will receive a gift of ten thousand dollars,” and if you were to say, “Well now, that's very nice. I'd certainly like to have that ten thousand dollars but, you know, I lost a penny out here in the barnyard; I must go out there and dig through the manure to find that penny. I can't be there at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. It's too bad.” To me it would be just as sensible, absolutely just as sensible, as some of the things I see right here tonight. Yet I suppose everyone here could say, with a reasonable degree of honesty, “Well I'm doing the best I can under the circumstances.” Perhaps that is the point, or at least part of it. Why maintain the circumstances? There is something that you could do: relinquish the right to maintain the limiting factors; and it could be done so easily, and actually there wouldn't be any loss. It would be all gain. It might seem for the moment to be loss but it wouldn't be. There would be such wonderful gain involved, wonderful privileges, wonderful opportunities, and a real step forward, so that we could begin to enter into the Rhythm of the Seasons of God in the accomplishment of our service. It is in this that we need to do some meditating. A readiness to let it be so needs to appear. And I wonder, when will it be?
