Naked  and  Unashamed

from   Spiritual Intimacy

Martin Cecil    August 5, 1973

 

And so we come to the cool of the day, and should be reminded that the voice of the Lord walks in the garden in the cool of the day. When we hear that voice we hear the word that is spoken: "Where art thou?" And hearing that beautiful sound, and the spirit of those wonderful words, we cannot help but instantly answer, "Here I am."

This day we have shared the outpouring of the spirit in a service this morning and in other events which have allowed us to draw close as a family, and we come finally to this evening hour when we easily hear the voice of the Lord because we have been hearing it throughout the day. If we love the Lord our attitude is clear with Him and there is no need for fear, no need for shame. But if we cling to the self-centeredness that we have known in the past, then we are likely to turn away from Him and hide ourselves once again in fear and in shame.

Why is there fear and shame in human hearts? Because of the working of the Law—the Law does work; and as we give, so do we receive. There is fear and shame because there is basic dishonesty; we are dishonorable in our attitude toward the Lord. When there is fear and shame there is the endeavor to hide or to escape; but finally we reach a point where we know there is no escape, so that we may come once again to our senses and face what needs to be faced with honesty.

 

We have undertaken to look into the mirror of self-revealment—the jadestone, as it has been called on occasion. We can only do this when we are really honest, so that we are looking to see what is there and not to escape from what is there. Until we are this honest it can be said that there is only potential hope for us. It is not enough to look once, glance once, and then quickly away—although this may be all we can stand to start with—but to come again and again. In the world the way it now is, this is part of the process of becoming spiritually mature—spiritual maturity includes all other levels of maturity in this world. This is the first necessity. So many people think they need to do so many things in so many other levels and ranges of experience before they could possibly come to the point of even considering spiritual maturity, but no other kind of maturity is possible without first spiritual maturity, and this requires that we draw close to the Lord.

 

The human view in this regard has been that all we need to do is repent and He will forgive us and pat us on the head and say, "Come close"; but that isn't the way it works under the Law, because the mere desire to repent is not repentance, and the mere desire to receive forgiveness is not to be forgiven. There is far more to it than that. It has been imagined sometimes that we can bring all our distorted state into the presence of the Lord and He will hose us down, so to speak, so that thereafter we may be pure. There is a need to be washed in the water of truth, four barrels three times, but this is done by the servant, or servants, of the Lord on earth. It is not done by the Lord Himself, principally because He's not on earth—this is something that has to be done on earth. So there must be those on earth who are capable of wielding the bucket, of pouring the water of truth upon the one who becomes repentant.

 

Some people find it quite easy to say, "I'm sorry." Others discover that it's more difficult. But words are not enough. Something always has to be proven out. We have a special opportunity here to prove these things out, an opportunity that is absolutely priceless, because in the same way it doesn't exist anywhere else on the face of the earth. If there are those things which have not cleared here they are going to have to clear somewhere else where it will not be so easy. This is the easiest place on the face of the earth, but it takes repentance, genuine repentance and real response—the open heart.

 

The hardened heart. It is the habit of human beings the world around, in every generation: hardening the heart toward the Lord, keeping it closed off, hiding behind the trees in fear and in shame. No one can hide from the Lord without being afraid and ashamed. No wonder this is general human experience.

 

And so we come in this hour in response to the voice of the Lord, with open hearts I trust, relinquishing fear and shame because there is a willingness to stand naked before the Lord. In using these particular words to describe an experience, we need to share the same spirit to understand them. Understanding and agreement between people is not possible on any basis whatsoever other than in the spirit of the living God. All kinds of techniques have been developed in the world with respect to what is called communication, but finally they are all worthless, because they do not allow communication. They are based in forms of various kinds, techniques of various kinds, and all these forms and techniques are in the end completely worthless, because the true communication is possible only in the spirit of the living God. Then the spirit brings forth its own forms; but the agreement is not established on the basis of the forms but of the spirit which is shared.

 

When there is a sharing of the same spirit, one person may permit a certain form to appear which presents an understanding from a certain position, someone else will do likewise, and the understanding will emerge from various angles, one might say, so the vision may be complete. But then it is all brought forth by the same spirit, and while individuals may have contributed to the complete picture that appears in form, that picture will reveal agreement, harmony, oneness. When human beings try to agree on the basis of forms, arguments ensue and conflict is generated; and no matter how much discussion there may be, or how much definition of words that are used or phrases that are incorporated into the printed agreement, nobody really agrees. Human beings never really communicate until they come again to the spirit of the living God, and then there may be communion with God.

 

The voice of the Lord may be heard in the cool of the day and the answer may be the true one. If it is the true one, of course the Lord doesn't really need to ask the question. Coming again into the presence of the Lord we may stand before Him with no dissembling, no attempt to hide anything. Obviously, if we attempt to hide something there must be a reason for that attempt. Like as not that reason will center in shame; if not in shame then in fear. Usually there is a fear that one is going to lose something—face, if nothing else—or that one's pretty baubles, which one has stolen, will be taken away.

 

This morning I mentioned embezzlement. All human beings, without exception, have undertaken to embezzle life, to steal from the Lord. The Law works, of course, very effectively—enforced accurately and justly. That's its nature. It's the nature of God. And if we have stolen life we land up in jail, in prison, a prison which becomes harsher as time goes on, because probably our embezzlement continues, even behind prison bars. It's not too comfortable there, but it is said that even in prisons of this human world the harshness can be somewhat alleviated if one has a little coin of the realm. So the individual seeks to embezzle a little more. But the working of the Law is absolutely just. Human beings complain about injustice. Nonsense! The Law works justly.

 

Now the Lord is not like human beings are sometimes in relationship to those who have done criminal things—the true Law works, so that if a person begins to restore what has been stolen the harshness of the jail sentence lessens, and when everything has been restored he is out of jail. What a just law! But everything must be restored—no holdouts of a little nest egg on the side. If we are interested in restoring our lives to the Lord, to whom they belonged in the first place, we are enabled to do so, not merely because we don't like it in jail but because we have come to love the One from whom we have stolen and it grieves us at our hearts that we should have done this thing to Him. So there is no question but that we will undertake to restore every jot and tittle, that all may be fulfilled.

 

Everything we have extracted from the Lord must be returned to Him; not reluctantly, not with an attitude of bargaining, but with an attitude of deep thankfulness that we have the privilege of doing it, because without that privilege there would be nothing left but absolute desolation. So here we see how it works in our own experience, and how we may, if we will, participate in the process by which we are released from prison. And why would we be anxious to be released from prison? Again, not because it's uncomfortable there and the food's bad, but because we find ourselves in position to live and to serve with ever-increasing effectiveness, no longer restricted to our jail cells. We come forth because we love the One whom we serve, and our whole life is restored to His service. Not one jot or tittle is retained for our self-centered selves. This is the way. Whether anyone likes it or doesn't like it is beside the point.

 

There are two directions a person may go: either his jail becomes more oppressive, until he ultimately lands up on death row, or he moves out of maximum security to lessening security—he becomes less of a risk to the Lord—until finally he comes out in freedom because he knows the truth of himself in his own life, which is wholly included in the life of God. Restoration! And as there is this restored love for the Lord there is a consequent willingness to find all that has been stolen and give it back to Him, a delight to do it, a thankfulness that it's possible. Even at a late, late date it's still possible, but the sooner the better, and the sooner the easier. Then, as it is restored to Him, we find an increased communion with the Lord, the basis for spiritual communication with our brothers and sisters. And this is the first necessity, the thing that is usually put quite last in human experience, if anyone even thinks of it.

 

The first thing nowadays seems to be physical intimacy, and that is a vile thing. Physical intimacy, when it is right, stems from prior spiritual intimacy, and prior spiritual intimacy is impossible between two human beings until there is first individual intimacy with the Lord. As there are those who do begin to yield in spiritual intimacy with the Lord, then we can begin to consider the truth. And there are those who will stay to consider it. Starting to talk about these things while everybody's bent on physical intimacy, as though that were the primary fulfilment in life, would inevitably abort any creative experience. It only works when there are those who will sit still and listen, because they're not so intent on their own self-satisfaction anymore; they see there is something more to all this than the very low, decadent experience that is all that human beings have known for twenty thousand years. Isn't it wonderful that I'm able to say these words and there's a group of people who will sit there and listen?

Oh dear! We're all going to lose something most precious. Indeed? Too bad! But don't you believe it. What we are in the process of losing in prison is life itself, and we're worthless without it. We can't have much enjoyment even in physical sex if we're dead. So let's grow up and put away the childish nonsense and begin to recognize what it is that comes first, what our first love really is. Until we wake up to that we're not honest; we're still indulging in our criminal activity—and where the Law works the way it does in the cosmos, to jail you go. Nobody ever gets away with anything. Imprisonment is certain, but we begin to see how there may be an emergence out of it, out of the intensifying experience of utter desolation, the abomination of desolation; because human beings have allowed this abomination into the most holy place, and the most holy place relates to the place that is closest to God. The place that is closest to God is the place where man shares the creative capacity. That, in human parlance, has been called sex. That is the most holy place. The vast majority have defiled it. The attitudes of human beings in this area stink, to say the least, to put it most mildly. It is an abomination of desolation, rampant in the world today.

 

Spiritual intimacy comes first, and this is based in intimacy with the Lord, communion with the Lord—the reality of that communion. Let us experience the reality of communication with the Lord. But there can be no communication with Him—He won't commit fornication or adultery with anyone—until that person comes clean. Then it can be a true union. You can't lure the Lord into oneness with you on the basis of your self-centered desires. He stands aloof, and He can't be found.

 

All other communion is based in communion with the Lord. When you know what that is, you may begin to understand the ramifications of communion that extend through you to others. But if you don't start at the point which is the starting point, there is no beginning, and everything that is undertaken is an abomination. It brings creative disaster, if it could be put that way. It creates disaster. There is a way which seems good to a man, but which is in fact the way of death, and this relates very particularly to the realm of sex.

 

There is only one way that it may be right. I'm not talking about outer form. The divine design is not in the least promiscuous. It is just exactly what it is, take it or leave it. But when we take it we find that it couldn't be better, and that is the wonder of it. The way of the Lord is the way of life, the way of all life's fulfilments—unimaginable to the limited and darkened human consciousness. So, communion with the Lord first; and when this begins to be a reality His dominion is at work in you, the Law is working through you, and the true design of being can take form because you are on earth, even as it takes form through others who let it be so likewise, so that there may be spiritual intimacy extended.

 

I have always invited you to a spiritual intimacy with me, male or female. Why not let spiritual intimacy be without interpretation? It is human interpretation of these things that causes all the trouble, isn't it? It spoils the agreement. We do not have to interpret the meaning of spiritual intimacy, so as to try to make something out of it that would be pleasing to oneself. Immediately that is a self-centered interpretation, and immediately the spiritual intimacy is lost, it's gone. Let it alone. Let the spiritual intimacy grow and develop, that it may bring forth its own form in the seasons of the Lord; and the form that is brought forth may not, in its initial manifestation, be recognized by the individuals concerned. Isn't that a delightful thing? But then it becomes obvious to them, not because it is something personally that they require, or even that they particularly desire, but because they see it fits in the fulfilment of the form that is appearing in the divine design, brought forth by the spirit of God because first spiritual intimacy was shared.

 

Men very often have found it difficult to share spiritual intimacy with a woman without interpreting it in some physical terms, and vice versa too. Spiritual intimacy is an intimacy that can be shared between men, and between women, and between men and women, without giving it any physical interpretations at all. Human beings have filthy minds and they see everything through their filthy minds, and they judge, very often, spiritual things, which alone can be discerned spiritually. Spiritual intimacy is essential between men, and I thank God that it is beginning to emerge increasingly, and likewise between women, and likewise between men and women, without all concerned in that field imagining that they immediately have to jump into bed with each other.

 

Let the dominion of God be reestablished, that the right design may emerge without human beings attempting to force it into their own patterns of desire; and if it is allowed to emerge it is found to be the most wonderful and fulfilling thing imaginable, because it is not a matter of human beings choosing each other. As our Master put it, "I have chosen you"—"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." The divine design is the divine design, not the human design, and the human design is a foul substitute for the divine design. There's no value to it whatsoever, and the quicker it disintegrates the better. But let there be the divine design to take its place, because it is emerging through you and others, based in a willingness to experience spiritual intimacy with the Lord first, and then spiritual intimacy with others; and then let the Lord put it all together. He will, if you let Him.

 

Here is the dominion of God. Here is the experience of those who are willing to stand naked before the Lord, who are no longer lurking with fear and shame behind the trees, who do not even have to answer "Here I am," because the Lord can see there they are!—He doesn't ask the question anymore. Let us share this fulfilment to the glory of God.

     

© Emissaries of Divine Light