from
The Holy of Holies
Martin Cecil December 25, 1972
In the story
told in the Book of Job long ago, "There was a day when the sons of God
came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among
them." Satan is the self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man. The
self-centeredness and the self-will of man is what impels him to do what he
does. Satan is certainly not an unknown quantity in the world as it is in this
day and hour, for here is the compulsion which drives men to do what they do.
In that day long ago, it is said that Job was a perfect and an upright man who
feared God and eschewed evil. There was, however, evidently a weakness in the hedge about him. One of the evidences of this weakness was indicated at the
point when his wife suggested that he curse God and die—she was not in
agreement with him. Because of whatever weaknesses there were in Job's hedge
Satan was able to enter in, bringing disaster. Because the Holy Place was not
maintained by those who were responsible for it the hedge was breached. The
self-centered, self-willed consciousness of man, Satan, the adversary, took
command of the situation temporarily and there was disaster and
tragedy.
As I welcome
you to the Holy Place this morning as the sons and daughters of God the
question arises as to whether Satan comes with you, whether there is anything
remaining in your consciousness which is in agreement with the self-centered,
self-willed state. At that time, because there was a weakness in the hedge, what
Satan had to say necessarily had to be listened to. This morning I trust that
we may ignore anything that he may have to say. He has many specious arguments
to maintain his position in those who are self-willed and self-centered, but
relinquishing this state of consciousness in favor of praise and thanksgiving
to God, Satan may be ignored, certainly not agreed with. Because our agreement
is with the Lord in the Holy Place we may come before the veil which connects
the Holy Place with the Holy of Holies.
To you this
morning I represent that most Holy Place. And remember that only the High Priest enters therein. But the High Priest—whoever he may be at any particular
time in the unfoldment of the creative purposes of God—represents the Lord to
the Priesthood and represents the Priesthood to the Lord. The High Priest and
the Priesthood represent the Lord to the people and the people to the Lord
(these are the people of the Encampment). The High Priest, the Priesthood and
the people of the Encampment represent the Lord to the world and the world to
the Lord. Here is the first recognition of a certain detail to the pattern of
representation. There is an intricacy to it, requiring each individual to be
faithful and true, maintaining integrity in his or her place in the overall
design.
In this
pattern of representation, we have moved out of the Encampment into the Outer Court and through the Outer Court into the Holy Place to provide the setting in
the Holy Place for the spirit of the living God. That spirit is represented to
you this morning by the spirit of the words which I speak, that you may know
that the Holy Place is a reality because of the reality on earth of the Holy of
Holies.
All that is essential to every human being on the face of the earth springs from the Holy of Holies.
To deny this truth is to die. Because the
children of men, in their self-centeredness and self-will, have been
persistently denying this truth and betraying the Lord in consequence, they
have died, and the whole world moves to the point of death. Death to what? To
self-centeredness and self-will. If a person is identified with this then it is
death to that person, but if the Priesthood is present on earth in right
relationship to the High Priest, then the door is opened to life; there is life
for the world; there is a future for the world on this basis. Those who indulge
in self-will and self-centeredness take the attitude, so often, described by
the words, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." That's
true, of course, for those who indulge in such fantasy. Death is the chosen
course, but only by reason of their own attitudes, by reason of their own
decision; for the Lord has ordained life. This is a world of life. This is a
world uniquely created to reveal the Glory of Life in all its fulness. What
remarkable variety there is on earth for this purpose even now after all these
thousands of years of human self-centeredness and self-will.
So we stand
again in the Holy Place, aware of the reality of life—life which is revealed by
the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah pattern. The Cloud of Glory emanates from
the Holy of Holies because therein is the Light that Glows and the Fire that Burns—the source and the origination of everything that is required for the
manifestation of life at every level on earth through mineral, vegetable,
animal and man. But man holds the key to life or death. Assuming the posture of
ignorant self-centeredness and self-will, he dies, and he takes his world with
him. Acknowledging again the reality of life as represented by the Priesthood
and the High Priest, the experience of what has been called the resurrection
immediately applies. There are two ways: the broad way in which human beings
have been treading recklessly for centuries, and the narrow way, the way of
integrity, the way of honor and honesty, the way of beauty and meaning, the way
of life. Out of the Holy of Holies the Word is spoken through the Priesthood,
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve: If the Lord be God then serve
Him, but if Baal, Satan, self-centeredness, then serve him." Every human
being on the face of the earth must make this choice. This choice has been made
in every generation all down through the ages, but now we come to the time of
culmination when the whole stupid mess of self-centeredness may be swept from
the face of the earth. This occurs by reason of the creative power of God, not
by any mighty effort of man, whose sole effort is the digging of his own grave.
This year, as
never before, the unfoldment of what has been occurring has been placed in my hands so that the spiritual aspects might dominate. Heretofore, the material aspects have tended to
dominate. All that has been unfolding here was brought to me by those responsible
so that it might be to this extent in my hands. Because it has been in my hands
and because there has been the openness of response that has appeared, because
of whatever measure of integrity is present, we have moved to this hour. We
have moved to stand before the veil, a place of trembling and yet a place
longed for in the hearts of those whose response and integrity brings them
here.
The veil
connects the Holy of Holies with the Holy Place. It is not a veil of
separation. It is a veil that is rightly there, impenetrable to all but the
High Priest, and no one with integrity would ever seek to tear it aside. It is
of the quality that allows what is present in the Holy of Holies to shine forth
into the Holy Place, so that the Holy Place may be the place of the experience
of what originates in the Holy of Holies. The setting of holiness is maintained
that it might be so, that the birth of water and of the spirit might be the
constant experience.
As this hedge is maintained to preserve the holiness of
the Holy Place the creative power of God becomes increasingly evident, shining
forth through the veil into the Holy Place, through the Priesthood into the Outer Court where the consciousness of those who occupy the Encampment comes to
focus in praise and thanksgiving. The Glory of the Lord fills the Tabernacle,
the Outer Court, the Encampment, and shines round about. There is nothing on
earth that can contend with the power of God when it is made manifest in this
fashion. The world is inevitably restored and man comes again into his place,
made in the image and likeness of God, walking upright and perfect on earth,
fearing God and eschewing evil. Behold, all things are thereby made new. The
world becomes again a world of life and not a world of death, the world of God
and not the world of Satan.
Lift up your hearts and eyes in this hour in
praise and thanksgiving to God in the consciousness of the quality and the
character of God, which is your own, and in the awareness of the Lord God in
the Holy Place, in the midst. As the Lord Himself said when He was on earth,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name"—in the
consciousness of me—"there I am in the midst of them." So it is in
this hour. So it is in every hour when there are men and women of integrity who
stand in that integrity revealing the truth of themselves in the expression of
the Glory of Life on earth. That Glory of Life made manifest is the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah. Behold, in this hour, so it is established to you, and
through you and all those of integrity who share the responsibility of the Priesthood of God on earth today.
© emissaries of divine light
