from
THE KING
His Household and His Ministers
Martin Cecil April 24, 1983
The quality and character
of the kingdom is the quality and character of the King. This is also the
quality and character of His people. Grace and dignity were the two words used
to convey something of the nature and atmosphere of the King and His kingdom.
The kingdom is one way of describing the true state on earth. There would be no
kingdom if there was not a King. As I have indicated, the character of the
kingdom is the character of the King and of His people.
The King governs in His kingdom. It
may be said that the government is one of love and truth and life. It isn't an
arbitrary imposition; it is readily and delightedly received by those who are
present in the kingdom and by all creatures great and small. There could be no
kingdom but for the King. The King carries responsibility for the kingdom; He
carries it on behalf of a greater King. But insofar as we are concerned this
One, whoever He is, is the King. We can trust Him to be the King and to govern
in the quality and character of His kingly nature.
Perhaps His true nature as a King is
sufficient to identify Him in our consciousness. Those who are His people love
Him and desire nothing more than to serve Him; that is fulfilment enough. If it
doesn't seem to be so to anyone it is simply because that person does not know
the King. There has been very little knowing of the King. Except from the
standpoint of claims of the lips on the part of some, the King has remained
obscure, without any particular authority in the lives and the experience of
human beings.
The King has been ignored, factually
ignored, and His government, whatever that might be, rejected in favor of the
ideas and doctrines of men. But there is a King, and while He has been largely
excluded in human experience there is a level of being at which He governs. The
King is in His heaven, a heaven of which human beings know virtually nothing.
But the King governs there; He is loved there. He chooses His household there;
He chooses His ministers, and there is government from that level.
Because there is such government
human beings have thus far continued to exist on earth in their rebellious and
disobedient state. But the King still rules in heaven—fortunately for the
continued existence of human beings on earth. It seems to have been imagined,
without any intelligent thought being given to the matter, that it would be
possible to ignore the King and steal the earth. Certainly the world is a den
of thieves. There is no hope for human beings anywhere until or unless the King
is acknowledged.
If we are aware of the reality of
this supreme point of government related to this world, heaven and earth, then
we also have begun to experience the fact that He chooses His household and He
chooses His ministers. They are chosen in heaven. I'm not, I trust, using the
word "heaven" in the sense that would be fantastic in your
consciousness. There is a heaven, and you have had some experience of the fact
of it. There is a realm out of which one may live on earth, ungoverned by any
expectation anymore of being able to steal the world. It doesn't belong to
human beings. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the
world, and they that dwell therein."
As there begins to be a recognition
of these things, of course the fact of responsibility comes into the picture.
The King appoints His ministers, He chooses His household; and this fact in
heaven begins to become known on earth as there are human minds and hearts who exhibit
a willingness to let the fact be made known. You have some awareness of the
factual nature of this heavenly truth simply because it takes form on earth.
You may let it take form in your own experience and you may observe it taking
form in the experience of others.
The choice of the King is absolute.
His word is law. That's the fact of the matter. The King appoints His
ministers. To be His ministers they must minister to Him. Usually ministers are
thought of as ministering to their flocks; but the first concern is to minister
to Him, because this is necessary if He is to assume His authority in the human
consciousness. If a person has an imagination in this regard and then says,
"Well I know that the King would require me to minister to His people on earth,"
then he has turned his back on the King and is trying to do something according
to his own views of what should be done or somebody else's views of what should
be done. And so people in each generation tend to follow out the same lines,
the party line, so to speak. But that isn't ministering; that's theft. It's
trying to steal something from the King and saying, "Well now I have
stolen it; I know better than you how to apply it to my flock." That's a
lie!
It is necessary to love the King
first, above all else, because until that is the experience one's consciousness
cannot be filled with an awareness of what it would mean to love His people. If
you don't know the King you don't know His people either. We ourselves
presumably love the King. To the extent that we do so we will discover what He
has chosen. Who are His chosen people? The ones whose minds and hearts are
sufficiently willing to allow the truth to become known, the truth that He
chooses His household and His ministers. And one must discover the truth for
oneself.
The character of the kingdom was
described in terms of grace and dignity. I think we could add humility also,
for the King Himself is humble; He is humble before His King. Human beings are
arrogant. They think they know; they think they are capable of judging; they
think by the exercise of their brilliant intellects that they can discern all
things. The human mind is stupid.
No, there is a King and there are
His ministers, and His ministers rightly take form in the flesh. Presumably
from the King's standpoint this would be the first order of business. What else
can be done until His ministers put in an appearance? Nothing, nothing at all.
So, in whatever measure, this has been occurring. In order for this to be
effective, as it naturally will be if it emerges as it should out of heaven,
there will always be the necessity of a first minister. There rightly is a
first minister who, in revealing the character of the King, evokes love. The
love is for the character of the King. One can hardly separate the one who
reveals the character of the King from the character of the King. Presumably if
it is a true revelation they are one anyway. So love would include the first
minister, but only because the first minister reveals the character of the
King. And so those who begin to become aware of the fact of being chosen as
ministers naturally love the King and His first minister. There begins to be
something taking form here which, when fusion occurs, provides the King with
the means of His creative action. But there must be fusion.
The essential ingredients for fusion
in what might be called the ministerial body are love for the King and love for
His first minister. This engenders easy communion, communion between ministers
and an open communion between all with the first minister. While elements of
communication may be, and rightly are, involved in this, communion is something
deeper, because it is based in love. If there is no love, communion is
impossible; and because communion is impossible, communication is impossible.
The means of communication are fine, but there must be those on hand who have
something to communicate. In order to have something to communicate, the
experience of communion must have been established. Communion is impossible without
love, and all this centers in the King who carries the supreme authority.
This brings obedience into the
picture. We have heard tell that man rebelled against God; in other words he
became disobedient. The disobedience of course led to the theft.
So, love for the King brings love
for the first minister, as he begins to be recognized by those who also are
ministers. It has been said that angels know each other. The ministers of the
King know each other, and they cannot deny their love for the King, their love
for the first minister, and their love for each other. All this follows
naturally. Now there are those who are inclined, on the basis of the stupid
human mind, to think in terms of some sort of a hierarchy being set up. That's
a ridiculous human concept based in the state of separation. There is a design
of course; nothing works without a design.
There is one course of action, one
design, one way it works; that's all. It is futile to pay any attention to
anything else; nothing else works. All else is subject to fission,
disintegration; but there is the opportunity for fusion. Fusion only comes
because there is a King. There have been many people who acknowledge there must
be a King, and they have their ideas about it, and their doctrines, and so on,
but the King has remained unknown. He wasn't known when He took form in the
flesh on earth. He was denied, betrayed and, apparently, crucified. That's
water under the bridge now, but it certainly did not get rid of the King; He
is still there. His ministers emerge. All concerned who play their part in this
are one. They love each other because they love His ministers, because His
ministers love His first minister, and His first minister loves the King. Then
all share that fire of love, which is the fire of fusion. Without it there is
no fusion, just fission: each individual tends to go his separate way, doing
his separate thing, imagining that that is what should be done, that others
should agree to it. What foolishness!
There is a design. There is government.
And there is a sensible way by which government occurs. It has been occurring
right along insofar as the universe is concerned but it certainly hasn't been
occurring in the affairs of men. But now it may, and it is emerging into the
flesh because of obedience to the truth.
When there is obedience to the
truth, so that the truth characterizes the individual nature, love becomes known,
not before. Love is well protected from human experience by the truth. When the
truth is known there is love. Love makes possible communion and right, fitting communication. And all that is included in what I have called
fusion. Together, because we love the King in truth—in the design and the
government of the King, acknowledging the design with delight—obedience in
this sense is a delight. And acknowledging that, the design and the government
are the experience, the dominion is set in one's own living.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
