Thje Holy Place

from

The  Holy  Place

Martin Cecil   December 24, 1972

There is a Holy Place for the world and there is a Holy Place available to the experience of each individual. Individually speaking, to be a part of this Great Nation, that Holy Place must be known by those who compose it in the individual sense. There is a Holy Place for the world into which all do not enter. Those who might be called the Priesthood rightly enter and minister in and from the Holy Place, but the great mass of the true nation do not come in. All that is needful insofar as they are concerned is to know the Holy Place within themselves, individually speaking, and share in the ministry of the Priesthood who represent God to them and them to God.

Mention has been made of the mountain peak. From this mountain peak the true ministry extends; the Glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle and shines round about. It extends into the whole nation, into the whole earth. But the means by which it appears, the means by which the atmosphere of holiness is known on earth, is through the very specific design which was established in the beginning and still remains to this day. But to be meaningful this design must be activated within the experience of mankind, and it is only activated by people. There is no other means on the face of the earth by which the spirit of God may be active in this very specific creative sense. It is not activated by people who arrive from outer space in flying saucers; it is not activated by some invisible, unknown angels in heaven somewhere—it is activated through man. If there are no men and women on earth to let it be activated on earth, it is not activated within the experience of human beings and within the experience of the realm for which they carry responsibility.

An essential element in the design is the Holy Place. We mentioned the Outer Court and the Encampment; all these are necessarily present. There is a physical form to mankind and that physical form includes a consciousness, a capacity for something. To allow the fulfilling of that capacity the gate must be opened to the Holy Place, because out of the Holy Place come the essential qualities which fill the consciousness of man, shining through his physical form round about. The requirement in relationship to that consciousness, if the gate is to be opened, is the attitude of praise and thanksgiving—without that the door is shut. When this essential requirement is present the gate begins to swing wide so that what is inherent in the spirit of God, the character of God, may begin to fill the capacity for character in man. Most of that capacity for character is empty in human beings in the general sense. But when praise and thanksgiving are present in the consciousness of the individual, then it is natural to accept and rejoice in the true qualities and characteristics of being: the spirit of God.

These are found in the Holy Place; consequently there must be a Holy Place if they are to be found. There must be a Holy Place in the individual if he is to find himself in the truth of his own being—and that Holy Place cannot be discovered by any external means. What is required is to make available the right setting—to be born of water—so that the setting of praise and thanksgiving and openness of response, and, above all, of integrity, may be available for the outpouring of the spirit, the outpouring of the individuals' own character. This is the discovery to be made.

He can't find it by shopping around in the external sense. Most people seek here, seek there, looking for what is already present within themselves but unknown, imagining that it may be found by various external means. So people waste their lives in this foolishness; life runs out before they have visited all the shops. Only those who turn away from the shops because their integrity impels them to do so may come again into the Outer Court which surrounds the Tabernacle—the Tabernacle that is with men—and, coming there, become aware of the Tabernacle itself, of the fact that there is a door through which entrance may be made—all this because of the attitude of praise and thanksgiving. The awareness begins to permeate the consciousness that there is something present now with oneself, with each individual, that is not discernible in an external sense but which nevertheless is known to be of supreme value. The pearl of great price, the treasure buried in the field—all these have reference to what is present because of the Holy Place.

The Holy Place does not originate what is present in it, but what is present in the Holy Place would not be present without the Holy Place. The attitude of holiness must be present in a person, maintained there because he has integrity, a place in himself that he would never allow to be violated under any circumstances. It is a place into which others, in the general sense, may not enter, just as in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle in the overall sense, only the Priesthood minister there. It is the place of purity, the place from which springs all that is beautiful, all that is creative, all that is worthwhile. 

The Holy Place adjoins what was called the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, another place behind the veil. That is the place from which springs the treasure to be found when there is a Holy Place in the individual's experience and when there is a place kept holy because there is a true Priesthood, a place kept holy for the world. The true Holy Place has been long absent from the face of the earth. There has been an endeavor to substitute a distorted Outer Court for the Holy Place—the consciousness of man. It was thought that this could be developed, increased in capacity, made to be supremely meaningful, to rule the world. All it has done has been to bring chaos and tragedy to the children of men, and yet human beings everywhere continue to wonder after the beast.

We are concerned to come again to the Holy Place, that there may be a Holy Place for the world. Without it, what is there? A very bleak future, to say the least. But through the Holy Place may spring forth the creative power of God—God in action on earth, Jehovah, the Son of God. Those who begin to become conscious of these things—and we must necessarily speak of them in parables or in symbols—have the responsibility of maintaining the reality on earth. The Holy Place cannot be here in any meaningful sense until there is a Priesthood to administer what springs forth by reason of the Holy Place. It could spring forth forever without effect if there was nobody on hand to administer it.

So here we are, knowing where the Lord is to be found—through the Holy Place, presenting ourselves to the Lord that we may, with others, play our part in the service of the Holy Place, bringing again the vessels which have long been in disuse or been subject to misuse, that the true service may be rendered through them once more. As we all surely know, those vessels are thoughts and words and deeds, the vessels which become meaningful when they are filled with the oil of Love, the Truth of Love, the Creative Fire.

How recklessly human beings allow thoughts and words and deeds to find expression. They are mostly used, of course, for self-benefit, self-aggrandizement, in one way or another. They have been stolen from the Holy Place and taken into the place of defilement for misuse. Is it any wonder that the beautiful world of God has been wrecked? Yet the creative power of God is present; the Holy Place is available the very moment that there is a Priesthood to enter in. They enter in through the gate of praise and thanksgiving, bearing the vessels of the Tabernacle for use in the Holy Place. If you come into the Holy Place you bring with you your thought processes, your ability to speak and to act. Fortunately the Holy Place is self-cleansing, so that those who bring defilement with them are shortly ejected by their own attitudes and actions. There have been many who have approached the Holy Place only to find themselves ejected. All down through the ages it has been done, so that it has remained empty, unknown, insofar as the world is concerned. It only becomes known when there is a Priesthood who represent God to the people and the people to God, when the holiness of the Holy Place is made evident through the Priesthood. That holiness is made evident by reason of thought, word and act.

If we approach the Holy Place, let us remember that we come bearing these vessels of the Temple, and let us remember that we have heretofore been receivers of stolen goods. We have thought to use these things for ourselves, to do with them as we pleased, to achieve our own purposes for our own benefit. The vessels of the temple are for the Lord's use, filled solely with His spirit, with His character, with the qualities of His being, and consequently under His control and brought forth in the true design. When this is so, the Shekinah fills the Tabernacle and shines round about. Here is the creative power of God once again present and working through man on earth—not through all mankind, certainly, but through those who represent God to the people, that the people may rejoice and themselves partake of the character of God and live. Those who refuse, die. What all this means in the experience of the world remains to be seen and to be experienced, which occurs as there is the Priesthood ministering in the Holy Place.

In the atmosphere of holiness we may share the thoughts and the words and the actions which are fitting in the Holy Place, coming into position to allow what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine forth unhindered because it may be received into the Holy Place—there is someone present to receive it. To the extent that there is a Holy Place occupied by the Priesthood, then the apex experience may come as it relates to the Holy of Holies, not that there is an entering into the Holy of Holies but that what is present by reason of the Holy of Holies may be the experience in the Holy Place. It is so as there are those with integrity, filled with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, bringing the openness of yielded response and the clarity of thought, word and act in living into the Holy Place. Glory to God in the highest!

© emissaries of divine kight