from
The Focus of Spirit in Form
Martin Exeter June 16, 1985 a.m.
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed
not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.” These are pertinent words. They are couched in
terms of battle; there is a contest. This contest occurs in heaven. There are
plenty of battles going on on earth, near and far, involving a good deal of bloodshed
on the world scene. But this contest is in heaven. Terms used in human language
are the only ones available to describe what occurs in heaven. We see this
seeming battle in terms of a contest. Clearly, human beings on earth have been
governed and motivated by what is described here as the dragon. This contest between
the truth and this temporary creature, well known in the experience of human
beings the world around, needs to be brought to a conclusion at some point.
We have had an awareness of this as related to
ourselves personally, for here is the first place where the conclusion may be known.
We have presumably assumed the responsibility of knowing that, recognizing the
larger application which naturally and inevitably follows what is known personally.
It may be said by each one of us that nothing changes in the world of mankind
until it has first changed in me. As long as we have any other viewpoint them
this, our presence on earth is futile and meaningless. We merely add to the
chaos, the confusion, the destruction.
So our very integrity requires us to accept
responsibility in this matter, that we may, as individuals and together, let
the dragon be cast out of the heaven, which should be a holy place but is not
when the dragon is present. It is the place of motivation in the expression of
one’s own living. This has been a self-centered
motivation. Which one of us could say that satan, this
dragon, has been cast out of our own personal heaven entirely? I doubt, if
there is honesty, we would make any such claim. It isn’t a matter of making
claims anyway; it is simply a matter of letting it happen, and that is all that
matters.
The dragon is not cast out of heaven by the power
and might of reaction toward what is imagined to be the evil around us or even in
us. To struggle and fight, in the way that human beings tend to do, fastens the
dragon more firmly in position. He welcomes a battle, because he
has our lifeblood then. In such case one is being controlled by the dragon. He
says fight, and we fight. Human beings everywhere follow the dragon’s orders
with great respect, apparently, and so they fight. They fight individually within
themselves, but fighting with oneself also spills over into fighting with
others. There is a great deal of fighting in the world obviously; and it isn’t
getting any less, is it? So-called terrorists are rampant the world around, at
the moment seemingly more particularly in some places than others but they are
present everywhere where human beings are. And people are inclined to fight at
the drop of a hat. Fighting is always manipulative. It is deemed necessary to
keep evil under control; but if it is, it hasn’t done a very good job of it.
So it is not by reaction to circumstances around
us, or within us, which often generates self-righteousness and poisonous
judgment—the dragon thrives on all of this, as should be obvious enough for
anyone who has the ability to observe—it is not by the might and the power of
such reaction, it is not by physical force or mental manipulation, that
unholiness is cast out of the holy place. It is by my spirit—it is by what we would refer to as spiritual expression that the job is done.
Undoubtedly there is a contest. If we are
concerned with what may be called a holy motivation we would naturally eschew
the reactive attitude.
There has been and is concern, no
doubt, that this rather mucky state of affairs should be cleaned up, that there
might be a trustworthy focus of spirit on earth in form. There always has been
a trustworthy focus of spirit—that’s not the question. The question is as to whether
there might be a trustworthy focus of spirit first of all in human form. As
this does appear then there is war in heaven, and the dragon with his angels
are cast out of heaven. This self-centered motivation no longer
controls when there is the experience of holiness in the place of motivation.
So we seek to permit this state of affairs to be as it should be. The
unholiness cast out of what should be the holy place makes space for holiness.
What is needful is that there might
be the essential focus of spirit in form on earth. That essential focus has
always been present in spirit, but there has been a reluctance on the part of
human beings to provide any form for it, except, as we have noted, the structured
forms which are already in place. We have heard the principle that the spirit
creates its own forms. It does, when there are those who are willing to let
spirit do it, who are willing to relinquish that structured state, to let it be
destroyed, unstructured.
This isn’t necessarily a matter of violence. It is
only when one hangs on to the structures that violence puts in an appearance, because
the process of life is unstructuring the structured. And if we try to hang on
to the structured, we get
unstructured! Life compels it. There is nothing wrong with that—it’s just
perfect that it should be that way. It seems rather foolish to hang on to this manipulative
attitude which insists upon maintaining the structures which
engender judgment and self-righteousness.
We are not alone in having structures. Everybody
has them, and everybody is insisting that the spirit should work through their
particular brand of structures. Of course the spirit is not particularly
interested in conforming to this requirement, but while the structures are
present there is no place else for spirit to work except through those structures;
however in the process it unstructures the structures. If one participates in the
endeavor to sustain the structures, one is incorporating those structures into
oneself, and life moving in oneself will unstructure them and we fall apart. Of
course! That’s what should happen! So we are concerned to let this focus of
spirit take form by reason of our presence on earth. That’s easily said, but
it’s not so easily done if we insist upon maintaining our structures. It can’t
be done.
Over many years the focus of spirit has been
emerging in the creation of its own form. This form first relates to human
beings, to human flesh. The emergence of this focus of spirit has permitted some
human flesh to be assembled, not just in one place but anywhere, everywhere, to
provide a facility for the unhindered action of spirit. The action of spirit is
constantly being hindered by human insistence upon their particular brand of
structures. As there is a willingness to relinquish this, to free up, so to
speak, then spirit begins to have a channel through which to operate. And this operation
comes on the basis of focus.
Anyone who has any experience of spiritual
expression knows that attention comes to focus; it isn’t a scattered thing. It
comes to focus in the expression of the Word. It comes to focus in me in this moment,
so that what is to be said may be said. If I am vaguely floundering around,
hopeful that something that I say may be useful, I don’t think any of you would
be listening. The point is that it comes to focus. It comes to focus in this
particular setting here, because there is a flesh facility for it to happen. It
couldn’t come to focus otherwise. If no one was standing at this lectern I
wonder how long we would all be sitting around. It comes to focus because there
is a point of focus in form. Spirit has a focus in form.
There is a point of focus. Let us not imagine that
focus is merely spirit. It is spirit, it always has been spirit, there always
has been a focus there. We can’t make it so because it already is so. That
focus is there. But the focus has been lacking on earth and, incidentally, the
dragon—human nature—the dragon always
undertakes to scatter abroad, always divides to conquer, so to
speak. Whenever something is drawn to focus of spirit in form the dragon is always
right there to destroy it. How? By scattering it. There was great success in
this regard with respect to the Israelites of old; they were scattered abroad.
Triumph for the dragon! It happened again at the time of the Master on earth. There
was a point of focus in form. Those who had the opportunity of sharing that
focus and allowing the form of it to expand never let it happen. So there was a
scattering abroad. It did momentarily come to focus again on that day of Pentecost
long ago, but it didn’t last. They all went out with their brilliant ideas and
their great understanding, and all the rest, to convert the world. That is not what is required, ever! What is
required is to let this point of focus take form; and the dragon will always
try to scatter it abroad. One has only to read history to understand that; it
should be quite obvious to any intelligence other than those who are subject to
the dragon.
So a body of flesh provides the initial facility
through which the focus of spirit may find expression. This body of flesh has
been growing over the years, but it still operates on the same basic principles
as were there in the first place. Nothing has changed in that regard. But this
body of flesh is not separate from what we would call the environment. If one were
to take a holier-than-thou attitude and say, “Well we are so holy that we can’t
be connected at all with this environment around us; we are going to retire
into some monastic facility somewhere and be holy,” we would at the same time
be absolutely useless. No. There is a flesh body including, I trust, the
individual flesh bodies of all of us here this morning. But we are not isolated
from our environment. And this focus is reflected in the body; it is reflected
in the immediate environment. There is no separation.
We are here to provide what is necessary through
the focus, which includes the whole developing body wherever it may reside on
the face of the earth, but brought to focus in the core. And the core has a
facility in which it resides. I don’t think any of us are interested in
destroying our physical bodies or permitting anyone else to do it. We are here
for a purpose in the flesh. It’s vital. It has
ramifications for the whole world. It isn’t just a little thing. There is a
core position. We know what is going on. What is happening by the action of
spirit is all that concerns us; and we know the action of spirit will bring forth
what is needful if there is a facility through which it can be done, and that
facility is a form.
It is through spiritual expression that things are
handled. Let us not be so foolish as to imagine that we can throw out any of
the fundamental, basic principles which are part of the truth which we already
know. None of them can be, and one of the essential principles is that there
should be a focus of spirit on earth. Isn’t that right? Isn’t it the lack of
that focus on earth that has thrown the world into chaos? Now it’s reemerging,
so we are concerned to let it keep on reemerging. And it reemerges in very practical,
sensible ways, so that anything can be dealt with easily from the standpoint of
spirit.
Everything is properly
governed by spirit, because the dragon is cast out of heaven. There is no more
scattering motivation, but a willingness to let everything come to point in
spirit. The first means by which the spirit has its way is through the focus of
form. However it’s looked at, the principles of truth which we know so well
work. Let’s let them work! What is there to be afraid of? Just let the spirit motivate, control. Let the holy
place be holy. And this is our responsibility.
We share a focus of spirit in a particular sense, allowing
the spirit to move through our own awareness, our own understanding, with
greater effectiveness. In our continuing expression of spirit, both as individuals
and as a body, the control on earth might come again into the hands of the Lord
because He once more may be incarnate on earth. It is His action which is rightly
our action, His thought which is rightly our thought, His Word which is rightly
our Word. So is it brought on earth.
Get thee hence, satan, out of the holy place, that
the holy place may be holy for His, the Lord’s, dwelling on earth in the flesh.
Here is the flesh—where else is it? Flesh originates out of the earth. It doesn’t
come out of the heaven; but the spirit incarnate in that flesh comes out of the
heaven. So we share today agreement that this flesh body should always accept
and receive spirit into living expression, moment by moment, the quality and
the character of the Lord. His blessing then is extended into the affairs of
men, so that where there is a willingness on the part of whoever is concerned, the
affairs of men may be aligned with the affairs of the Lord. So would we ever
let it be in whatever way is presented to us, both as individuals, as groupings
here or there, and as the body of the Lord in wholeness. What a joyous
privilege, what a wonder this is! We would let that wonder abide in our heaven,
that it may be reflected in the earth.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
