Sanctification By The Truth

Sanctification  By  The  Truth

Martin Cecil   January 10, 1982

I call to your remembrance certain words—through you I call these same words to the awareness of all people. These particular words are recorded in that great prayer of intercession—the words of Jesus, translated into English: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Sanctification comes by the truth. The truth comes because the Word of God is spoken. Purification comes by love. Truth is symbolized by water, and love by fire. The water of truth sanctifies—the fire of love purifies and transforms.

Sanctification comes first. The Word of God in expression in living comes first. The water of truth may be poured forth upon those who are open and willing to receive it. You yourselves have had varying numbers of years of conditioning in this regard, but sanctification only comes when the expression of the Word comes forth through oneself. One may be inspired, provided with an example, by someone else through whom the Word is spoken, but even if this someone else is Jesus it does not bring sanctification; it does not cause a person to be holy unto the Lord until that person expresses the Word in his or her own living. Then there is sanctification, because the person is consequently holy unto the Lord. That word holy can be spelled two ways. Life becomes sacred, and the individual living is completely unto the Lord. No longer is anything held out for the benefit of the human ego, for the nourishment of the human ego.

There is baptism by water. Some have wondered at times why baptism seemingly has not been particularly stressed in the Emissary ministry. Oh but it has factually, not merely symbolically. Water has certainly been poured out abundantly; that is baptism by water, a conditioning process. But the sanctification comes not because of that sort of baptism, although it may be necessary to bring a person to the point of sanctification. It comes because the individual himself or herself is the Word in expression. Then there is sanctification, and the fire of purification and transformation may come forth.

Love in expression is always characterized by truth. Fire requires water, a seeming contradiction in the human view but the one way from the divine standpoint. And so water in abundance is provided to allow for the conditioning to occur through example and inspiration from someone else, but finally sanctification is essential if the fire is to be known. There is also, of course, baptism by fire in the sense of an enfoldment in love. This, as you know, has always been available, offered freely, but purification does not come merely by that. The truth of love must come forth in the glory of life if purification is to be known—if transformation is to occur. There is an evident sequence here which cannot be ignored successfully if the requirement of transformation is to be experienced—step by step we might say; and yet, of course, one step blends into another. The opportunity is being offered to human beings everywhere to be baptized. This is so if those who have the experience of sanctification pour forth the water, provide what is necessary for the conditioning of human consciousness. To whatever extent, this has been going on and we have some awareness of the effect of it. The effect has come mostly through inspiration at a subconscious level.

If there are those who are sanctified because the Word is finding expression in their own living, then the water is available to be poured forth—in fact it pours forth; you can't withhold it. So a conditioning process occurs in the world around us with human beings everywhere, and we have taken note of some of the evidences of what has been happening. It may be said that some people, at least, are awakening. This has been and is our particular responsibility, making possible the coming of the Comforter, the spirit of truth. As we have noted before, this occurs primarily at a subconscious level. Because something occurs at a subconscious level the conscious minds of human beings begin to be affected, because, as we have noted, it has been customary for people to be compelled by whatever it is that is present at the subconscious level. Having been so compelled, they may explain it consciously — rationalization — but the compulsion was subconscious. So we may utilize this fact from the standpoint of what we are calling now baptism by water. Let the conditioning process be a reality in the mass consciousness because there are those, ourselves included perhaps, who have some water to get the job done.  We well know, however, that this has not been enough in our own experience, and it is not enough for others either. The Word of God revealed and expressed on earth, individually speaking, is what allows the reality of sanctification to occur, to occur in our own experience and to occur in the experience of anyone anywhere.

So there has been, for us certainly, baptism by water, and also baptism by fire. Truth and love have been available for all who open their hearts and minds to the experience. By reason of this baptism some conditioning has occurred for us and consequently for others also, and love has been present to be shared. The conditioning of truth and the presence of love are simply the baptism. Only if that baptism initiates a living experience in the individual, so that the Word of truth is consequently spoken in living, has the baptism by water had any meaning. And so also with fire. We are primarily concerned with the truth, sanctification, so that we ourselves may be sanctified and be in position to offer the conditioning baptism to others. As I have said, this offering to others is for the most part at an unconscious level, unconscious to other people as to what it is that is happening, and yet consciousness is being conditioned.

We ourselves have found ourselves with the truth present, love present, abundant baptism in this regard. It has certainly brought conditioning of consciousness to us. The question is: How much sanctification actually has occurred? Sanctification means to make sacred, to make holy. How much awareness do we have as individuals that the whole of our living, every department of it, is sacred, is holy, so that we would never in our own expression allow defilement or abomination to enter in? Everything is sacred. No matter what we do, it is holy (wholly) unto the Lord, completely unto the Lord. How clear is our consciousness in this regard? Only as there is a clarity could it be said that we have been sanctified, so that we could never allow a thought to continue, or a feeling to continue, or a word to continue, or an action to continue, that was not holy (wholly) unto the Lord.

To what extent has sanctification been received? The answer to that question is that it has been received in exact proportion to the quality of our living, the extent to which our living is a revelation of the Word of God. That is what produces sanctification, and we are aware of that sanctification because all that we feel, think, say and do is recognized as being sacred. If there are dark or shady areas in our daily experience, we know that sanctification has not occurred, at least with respect to those areas. Sanctification reveals itself, because if for a moment some destructive thought or word or action or feeling puts in an appearance, immediately we are aware of it, and the word I suppose is, "Get thee hence, satan. What have I to do with thee? Nothing!" Here we begin to see how individually responsible we are. It has nothing to do with anybody else, does it? Someone else may hear the word we spoke possibly, if we spoke a word, but if we didn't speak a word, just had a feeling or a thought, then probably the other person is not too much aware of that. All these things are our own business. There is really no difference between the feeling and the thought and the word and the action. All of them are our personal responsibility individually speaking, to let them be sacred, holy (wholly) unto the Lord.

Because the baptism of water and the baptism of fire have been present we have all become aware of these things. We have become accustomed to our association with many, many friends; we can hardly go anywhere on the face of the earth without meeting them. Obviously, there is a closeness, regardless of such crosscurrents as may put in an appearance once in a while. There is a closeness, which has not always been appreciated as it should have been. We are surrounded by friends. This is true in a very close sense; but it is also true in the whole—we find friends all over the place. Love—here is an enfoldment, a caring—love. And we are, when the ego isn't too prominent, like-minded. We have a mutual understanding of the nature of truth and how it is that life tells all.

Do we not share a marvelous setting for our lives? Can we really think of anything that is comparable in the same depth anywhere on earth? Yet how often it seems that appreciation of it is lacking. Petty things come up and feelings are affected, thinking moves into wrong channels, wrong actions may appear, and wrong words. We have been provided with something so marvellous—marvellous one might say beyond human belief. If there is so much, and yet as individuals we do not find a stable consistency in our words, deeds, thoughts and feelings, what else in the way of a setting would make this possible, do you think? Of course this setting is there because of what has been contributed by all who are present in it, but why build with the right hand and tear down with the left? This marvellous provision has put in an appearance because of baptism by water and baptism by fire. We have had the easiest possible opportunity to reach a point as individuals where there is an absolute stability and consistency in the expression of the Word. If we are unable to reveal this in this most glorious setting, how would we do it if we found ourselves to be completely alone in the external sense? And yet, doing it when completely alone in that sense is sanctification. If there were no other people on the face of the earth whom we could count as friends, as individuals would we be capable of maintaining that absoluteness? This is what is required. We have been depending so much upon the setting where we are, while all too often complaining about it and thinking it should be adjusted someway. Why? To make it more pleasing to me, to oneself? Whether it's pleasing or not, one still has the responsibility of being right, of standing for oneself without requiring anything from anybody else.

The demand attitude which is rife in the world of human beings everywhere is an evidence of the fact that those concerned are not living within their means; it's proof positive. If anyone ever has a demand attitude, he is demanding something more—therefore the compulsion to demand something more is based in the fact that he doesn't think he has enough of whatever it is in whatever field. And if it is imagined that he doesn't have enough he clearly is not capable of living effectively within his means, the means that are actually there. You may have discovered that if you live within your means in fact whatever is needed for your greater service, your greater expression of living on earth, will be available. If you don't think it's there you are not living within your means. I am not just speaking about money, although that's an aspect of it because that is very prominent in human consciousness, isn't it? Spiritual means also is the primary factor. The money aspect, all the other aspects, will take care of themselves when one lives within one's spiritual means. Too many have great expectations which are way beyond the spiritual reality of their expression. Then they try to fulfil those great expectations and fall on their faces.

So any attitude of demand which you find putting in an appearance within yourself proves to you immediately that if you give any place to that, you are revealing that you are living beyond your means. There is no need to demand anything if you are living within your means; nothing else is required. That's right, isn't it? And if that is the fact in your own experience, immediately you will find that your field of living expands and whatever is necessary for that field of living will be present. But if you try to make it be present you have an uphill struggle, to say the least—it will all end in failure. We have the opportunity of living within our spiritual means, in which case there is no need to demand anything. "I shall not want." That was a precept that was offered a long time ago, wasn't it? But how many have really taken it seriously?—no demand, no attitude of demand, no feeling of demand. The attitude, the feeling of demand, vanishes away immediately one is living within one's means.

We do not demand friendship. We do not demand anything from anyone. We do not demand love, certainly. Love doesn't come on demand anyway. We do not demand appreciation. Appreciation may be something to be naturally expressed by one who speaks the Word but it can become a snare to those who try to live off the appreciation that is so expressed, so that they would die if it wasn't expressed. Perhaps that's taking it to an ultimate extreme but that is what the fact is. If you require to be appreciated to be right, you're wrong. Children require a certain amount of encouragement, and appreciation is properly expressed to children; but somewhere along the way the offer of appreciation begins to come back a bit. The individual growing up must do the right thing because it is the right thing, not because he's going to be paid for it. The payment may be appreciation expressed by somebody else. That should never be a controlling factor. We may smile and say "Thank you," but we remain unchanged inside ourselves.

Over the years I have received a certain amount of appreciation—almost to the point of adulation. All that is like water off a duck's back insofar as I am concerned, because I am me, and nothing anyone can do or say will change that fact. We all need to become aware of that. We are who we are. Someone expressing appreciation is not going to make us more so; someone expressing the opposite is not going to make us any less either. If we can be bolstered by appreciation we can also be torn down by criticism—they go together. We don't need it for ourselves; we make no demands for it; we do not want it. If it's offered we know how to receive it. Certainly it makes for an easy atmosphere if appreciation is there. Maybe then two or three can be gathered together in one place, and there is the truth in the midst of them, individually in expression through each. That truth is not dependent upon anyone else for it to be expressed by oneself.

Are we capable of standing alone? We prove this out by revealing our capacity to stand alone in this beautiful setting. There would then never be a flicker of complaint or criticism or anything else. Oh that we should be so privileged to have all this and to be able to stand alone as well—not to be required to stand alone, being the only one. And yet we must in fact be capable of that. If we are not capable of that we are a pretty weak brother or sister. We can hide behind the love that is present, the baptism by fire that is here; we can wash ourselves a bit, I suppose, in the baptism by water—but we remain impotent, powerless, futile, meaningless, until there is the reality of sanctification: sanctification first, purification and transformation in season. Sanctification comes by the Word: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." It is the only way sanctification can be known, the only way by which we may be holy unto the Lord. Let us acknowledge that way. Let us eschew evil, so that we may stand, each one, as an individual, incorruptible.

We have often said that we are and have been richly blessed. As we begin to emerge into a clear space within ourselves we become increasingly amazed at the magnificence of what has been provided. If we take it for granted and think of it as a little thing we have no vision. You know what happens to those who have no vision. But when we really begin to open our eyes and see, we are dwelling in heaven; it's a fact, and there is nothing anywhere that we could bring ourselves to complain about, to criticize, because everything to us is sacred, everything. And we make very sure that we keep it so from the standpoint of our own momentary living, that no one associated with us may ever be caused to feel, by our own actions, words, thoughts, expression of feeling, whatever, that where we are is not a holy place.

You know the truth which would be contained in the words, "Where I am, it is holy." Is that the truth in your own experience? If it isn't, then who are you? No one, evidently. Where I am, it is always holy; it is always a sacred place into which nothing that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie can possibly enter in. Let it be so, that we may associate ourselves with this prayer of intercession, or this particular portion of it: "Sanctify them through thy truth"—"them" includes everybody—"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth, spoken, revealed, expressed, consistently by me."

© Emissaries of Divine Light