from
Spirit and Antispirit
Martin Exeter May 11, 1986
It becomes increasingly apparent
as to what we are here to do, no longer to be fussing about our personal
confusions and disturbances of mind and heart, or aches and pains of body. The
aches and the pains show up. And when they do, just as with the confusions and
the disturbances of mind and heart, attention is paid. Very frequently fear is
triggered: What could this mean? It seems as though it could be disaster, and
so life force is poured into what has made itself known, physically speaking,
by the ache and the pain. This is usual human reaction.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Most people seem disinclined to repent but think it more useful, in
a self-centered way, to seek out someone who can, hopefully, dispel the ache
and the pain. I'm sure that everyone has had some experience in this sort of
scenario, having completely forgotten for the time being, until the ache and
the pain have been taken care of if possible, that the kingdom of heaven is at
hand and that there was a little word ahead of this recognition, an instruction
indeed, or even a command: Repent! Stop pouring life force into your aches and
pains, stop pouring life force into confusions and disturbances; repent from
doing this, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We have had long opportunity
to participate in this process of repentance, so that the kingdom of heaven
might become the city of habitation and the King be present in His kingdom, to
do what He wishes to do.
Those who have some view with
respect to the King I'm sure would be inclined to say, "Well I'm sure that
what He would wish to do is what should be done." So that's settled! But I
wonder how many of us here present this evening, or beyond the few of us, really
consider what the vision, the attitude, the outlook, of the King really is, so
that we might associate ourselves with that? I don't think His intent would be
to fuss with aches and pains, confusions and disturbances. He is not
interested, as we well know, in condemning anyone. There is this lingering
attitude present in human beings in general that God is dealing out punishment.
We have divine terms here, a recognition of love, understanding, and a door
opened in heaven. There is no intent on the part of the Lord to mete out
punishment to anyone. I think if we consider His attitude we would find that He
is quite aware that human beings mete out sufficient punishment upon
themselves, without Him interfering in the matter!
But, really, what would His
outlook be? What is His vision of what is occurring in the world? Do we really
know what that is or, knowing, share it? Or do we have our own little view,
which, as I say, tends to be short-circuited when we start to fuss about all
these aches and pains, confusions and disturbances? Certainly He is not
interested in all that. The suggestion He would make with respect to it is,
"Leave it alone; let it pass away; don't insist that it should be given
more and more and more life force." The kingdom of heaven is at hand. There
is no need for all of that.
The whole kit and caboodle of
divine design is available to be given form and expression in the natural
pulsations of spirit, when there are hearts and minds that are open to let this
happen. When they are open in that way and there begins to be the movement of
the creative cycle within one's own experience, it will have an effect. That is
why it is important not to judge that effect. It may even engender a few aches
and pains. There may be some increase in confusion and disturbance, because,
after all, there are those things of human nature present which need to pass
away; something is being stirred up: "Oh Lord, save me from this
hell!" But it is really heaven in the process of coming. Judge not. Let
the accuser be cast down out of the heaven which he has occupied in human
experience for so long.
Emissaries are not good or bad;
they are emissaries of divine light, remember?—the means by which the light
shines, not the means by which one may be in position to judge all and sundry.
That's the accuser, and we are not aligned with that, surely. There is a
willingness to let the accuser be cast down out of the place of control. What
IS the reaction (or is there any?) when the ache, the pain, the confusion, the
disturbance puts in an appearance? There shouldn't be any reaction at all;
there needn't be any reaction at all if one is centered where one belongs. In
such case the accuser has been cast down. As I recall in the illustration in
the Book of Revelation with respect to this, he raised particular hell in the
earth after he was cast down. Well isn't that nice? Aches, pains, confusion,
disturbance—part of the natural process by which the heaven may finally be
reflected accurately in the earth. Obviously it can't be reflected accurately
the way things are now.
The King has been rejected; that
is what caused the fall in the first place. How could there possibly be
restoration without the acceptance of the King? The kingdom of heaven is at
hand—but, we are discovering, a lot closer at hand than perhaps in times past
we thought it was. Of course for most it looks more like doomsday which is at
hand: things are closing up and disintegrating all over. "Poor us; we're
not going to be able to enjoy ourselves the way we used to." It obviously
is a dilemma, which is so easily dissipated once there is acceptance into one's
own experience of the focus point of spirit, the spirit of the King, which then
immediately proclaims in one's own consciousness that the kingdom of heaven is
not only at hand but is right here. Then of course the accuser comes along and
begins to whisper and say, "Well if it's right here, why isn't it more
evident in your circumstances?" Give it a chance!
As has been indicated, the days
are shortened and there is less of a lag between the heavenly impulse and the
effect of it in the circumstances and in human experience round about. Of
course this intensifies things, hots things up, which makes it even more
uncomfortable for human nature; but at last it is recognized that what feels
uncomfortable should feel
uncomfortable, and it is splendid that it does. One need no longer be
identified with the discomforts of human nature, and by the same token we are
not interested in trying to make human nature comfortable—our own or anyone
else's. It must come to this point. There has been a tendency to tolerate human
nature in others for the simple reason that one is tolerating it in oneself.
Until you bring it to point in yourself you're not going to bring it to point
in anyone else.
But the days are shortened for the
continued existence of human nature. And where should those days be shortened
first? The greater intensity should be welcomed, because it is that that
shortens the days: the burning up of the human nature in one's own experience.
The days are shortened, and as we have this viewpoint of the necessity of
receiving the kingdom—which cannot be done without the disposition of human
nature—then we are anxious for human nature to dissolve. And we begin to become
aware of the King's viewpoint: let human nature pass away. But this requires
that there be an acceptance of the King and His spirit into one's own
experience and expression.
This is done individually
speaking, and I've been talking about it now; but then it comes into the body
and we become aware of what needs to happen in the body and we become aware of
our own responsibility, as individuals, for the dissipation of human nature in
the body. We do not align ourselves with the accuser. The only way that one can
be a part of the process by which this dissipation occurs is to recognize that,
largely, what is seen in others is this reflection of what is still present in
oneself but which one has not yet admitted to oneself. You don't judge what you
think is occurring in anybody else, because you don't really know what it is. One
comes to the point where there is a recognition that all that is required is
that there should be a clarification in oneself relative to the whole body. The
clarification in oneself clarifies it for the whole body.
So we let it clear in the body,
and the body becomes a fit place for the King. And the King comes into the
body, and He is not interested in fussing with the aches and the pains in the
body, or with the confusion and disturbance in the body. All He is interested
in doing is what He is incarnate in this body to do. So there begins to be an
alignment of thought, of feeling, of awareness with respect to what it is that
is happening in the creative field of the King. And that is what is of sole
concern—not "How's this going to affect me? What's going to happen to me?
Well who are you? Are you the
human nature person who is not being turned over to the King at all? Or are you
the one whose identity is in the King? This is my body, and I am here on earth
in this body not to condemn the world, not to accuse the world of anything, but
to offer salvation. The offering of salvation requires the dissolution of human
nature, and it requires the dissolution of the invisible focus of human nature,
which has been manipulating human beings ever since the fall.
What you consider to be right and
good will have been built into your subconscious mind coming out of your
hereditary past since the fall. So all that has no further meaning insofar as
we are concerned, does it? All we are concerned to do is to represent, be, the
King in expression because He has a body through which to express Himself. And
we compose that body; we can't get away from the King, then. There is no sense
of separation; it is all one thing. And, individually speaking, we find that we
think the King's thoughts, we move in the King's ways. We don't have any
personal, human nature thoughts or ways of our own anymore. That would be
considered, from the human nature standpoint, some sort of absolute
dictatorship.
But, you know, from the human
nature standpoint, from the standpoint of the invisible focus of that human
nature, there is the intent to establish a state of affairs which is an
absolute dictatorship. We hear about people's desire for peace and the
disposition of all nuclear weapons, all good causes. Who could be against it?
Yet these causes are fundamentally the devil's causes, because the intent is
that it should all lead to what has been called world government. Here is an
attempt to duplicate what is the fact with respect to the kingdom of heaven,
but to do it without the King, to establish something that would be world
government. Of course when people think of world government they think of it in
terms of their own structures of consciousness. The kingdom isn't a democracy;
human beings don't know what it is. There might be the inclination to say,
"Well the King rules; therefore it's a dictatorship." Therefore there
is an attempt here to bring in world government.
Well, of course the world should
be governed, governed as a part of a universal government, whatever that is. It
can't really be taken out of that, which is what this particular invisible
focus of human nature is attempting to do, so that there is a background
influence constantly, to maneuver things through well-meaning people with their
desire for peace and for doing away with nuclear armaments and all these
different things—improve health, all the rest—so as to lead everybody to the
logical conclusion that the only way we can have peace is to have a world
government. But then who is going to govern? Who is going to govern? Of course,
if there is a recognition that there is an invisible focus insofar as human
nature is concerned, then there is the point from which this government would
spring. And that could be interpreted as dictatorial, because it would appear
through somebody, or some group of people.
That invisible focus might be
called the antispirit—I don't call it the antichrist, because that spawns some
rather peculiar ideas in consciousness. We have been called the antichrist,
which is patently ridiculous! However, "antispirit." We are concerned
with spirit proceeding out of heaven, participating in the expression of that
spirit so that the earth may reflect it. And in a sense I suppose you could say
that's world government; that's the way things actually work. But it's a very
different thing to the emergence of what comes to focus in antispirit, in the
absence of the spirit of God. That is what the antispirit means. And what comes
into expression on that basis is human nature, and human nature is always tying
itself up in knots.
Well we're not interested in what
is happening in that regard, although we need to be alert with respect to these
various movements and causes that are present on earth, and which seem on the
surface to be so good, so necessary in case the whole human race should perish:
"We must have world government!" If that threat is present and
sustained and big enough, then it seems only logical, "Let's rush in and
have world government"—world government by antispirit, the invisible focus
of human nature. The control is exerted through human nature. It already is, of
course, but there is a gathering of things together so that finally there may
possibly be a dragon with only one head. The dragon is there already. At the
moment it has quite a number of heads, which appear to be in conflict with each
other; but back of the heads there is the rest of the dragon. But it's just one
dragon. Finally it might work out that all the heads destroy each other but
one.
I'm thinking of that in terms of
form, but it is all happening because of something which is quite invisible.
This is why people who have been looking so desperately to find the evil genius
who is making things go wrong on earth have never really come up with an
answer. They find someone occasionally—ah, off with his head! But everything is
the same as it was before. There is no shortage of human nature on earth! There
are plenty of candidates to be moved by this invisible focus, and as long as
the attention is paid to form—this form, that form, the other form; this
person, the other person; this nation, the other nation—this is distraction
from what is actually happening. People with the best of intentions go along
with these movements and causes, imagining that somehow or other they are going
to achieve some great thing, when those forms are not what they seem to be,
because of human nature. It doesn't matter what anyone does, how they organize,
how good their intentions are, it's all human nature, and human nature is
governed invisibly; there is an invisible focus to do it.
I have never emphasized this point
particularly, because one needs to reach a point when one has an awareness of
the invisible focus of spirit coming down from God out of heaven in one's own
experience, in order to understand what it is in the reverse direction. But
there is a reverse direction, obviously so; the fall took place, and human
beings are governed by human nature. Until one has an awareness of what the
situation is from within oneself, one is in no position to deal with what needs
to be dealt with in the larger picture, which is the King's purpose through His
body on earth: To do just that, to deal with it.
Well, obviously you're not going
to deal with this rather immense pattern of human nature, and the antispirit
which focalizes it, by soft and peaceable words. There is going to be the
necessity for meeting the situation, but not on a crusade basis: "Ah, now
we see the antichrist! Let's get on our white horses, with swords drawn, and
off with his head!" Well, one can do that; a lot of people have tried
that, but he always grew another one. No, it's not the form, because that is
merely a reflection of what is in the heaven of that form, and that is an
invisible focus. But we need to begin to become conscious that our mandate—shall
we put it that way?—is immense, compared to the stupid little things with which
as individuals we become involved, and as a grouping we become involved.
Finally we begin to look out with
the eyes of the King, with the understanding of the King, with the strength of
the King, with the authority of the King. Then all these other things simply
are nonexistent anymore as influences, insofar as our vision and outlook and
action are concerned. They may be present for a while. I know I personally am
not free from aches and pains. I'm not so confused as I used to be! or so
disturbed, because there is more space for the focus of invisible spirit coming
down from God out of heaven.
It is merely something that
happens when there is space for it to happen. It is available to anyone, and we
find that it comes in a certain way: We move in the way of the Lord; we think
the thoughts of the Lord; we share in the expression that is natural on that
basis. And consequently we are able to begin to bring into conscious awareness
something of the immensity of the job that has to be done—"immensity,"
I suppose, really from the view of the human mind, because it is not immense at
all from the view of the spirit of God. It's a very little thing in the total
universe, obviously, so there is no problem. But it transcends any view that we
have had in the human nature sense. All those things are so utterly petty and
meaningless once we begin to associate ourselves with what it is that is really
to be done in the fulfilment of the purposes of the King on earth.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
