The Holy Spirit Commands Absolute Adoration
from This Ministry
Martin Cecil May 30, 1976
It is important that one should have vision with respect to anything that is undertaken. Where there is no vision the people perish. So, regardless of what it is that is being undertaken in any given aspect of the creative cycle, there necessarily should be vision which transcends the immediate matter at hand. This is true with respect to all aspects of our living. There are some details of living which human beings slide over at times, imagining that they have no particular significance. They only lack significance in that individual’s consciousness, not in fact, because, if an angel is present and acting on earth, every detail of that action is of a creative nature, is important, and relates to far more than the immediate point in question.
There isn’t anything which may be undertaken—and we are constantly undertaking things in our daily living—which does not have ramifications of this nature. Where the vile attitudes of earthly orientation prevail human beings are inclined completely to overlook the responsibilities that are being carried and the effect, therefore, of their own behavior upon vast numbers of people. This relates to the matter of integrity, doesn’t it? A person of integrity is very keenly aware of his or her responsibility to his or her fellows—responsibility which can only be carried correctly when there is heavenly orientation. Therefore, on no account, at any time, for any reason, would there be a failure to maintain the essential heavenly orientation.
I spoke of the vile attitudes which are inevitable in earthly orientation. Now, there are a lot of apparently good people whose basic premise of living is earthly orientation. Their attitudes would not be considered to be vile; but if there is earthly orientation they are, in fact, vile. There is a constant betrayal of their fellows, quite apart from a constant violation of their own integrity. Those who begin to experience heavenly orientation may see these things, so that there is an absolute revulsion toward anything that smacks of earthly orientation.
When we come together in a service such as we share this morning heavenly orientation is emphasized. I’m sure it is emphasized in the consciousness of all concerned. In times past it has been said that when we come into the Chapel, to a service, the distorted patterns of human nature should be left outside. This, of course, is indication of what it is that should be present in the Chapel if we are to be gathered together with one accord in one place. But the fact of the matter is that if there are distorted patterns of human nature still present in you—when you come into the Chapel they can’t help but come in with you.
This was rather aptly described when it was said that the sons and daughters of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. In other words, Satan is always among those who come to present themselves before the Lord until Satan is no longer a factor in their expression of momentary living. If it is a factor in their momentary living, it will be a factor when they come into the Chapel. And while it may recede into the background for the moment because primary attention is being paid to spiritual things, it is still there. To the extent that it is still there, we cannot be with one accord in one place. If we cannot be with one accord in one place, there cannot be the experience of what has been described as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Such a description tends to engender human concepts. I am not talking about any conceivable human concept. I’m simply talking about the experience which is the natural event when there are those who are with one accord in one place. But it is absolutely impossible to be with one accord in one place as long as the distorted factors of human nature are retained in personal identity. While you may be encouraged to leave them outside the door when you come into the Chapel, you can’t, in fact, do it without staying outside the door yourself. This is a very important realization, because, regardless of what may have been achieved in the unfoldment of the creative process in which we have shared, there has never been an occasion when we were with one accord in one place. Never! That was simply impossible of experience, because the elements of distorted human nature were still present in the identity of the individual who was offering him- or herself to the Lord—Satan came also among them. And we know what havoc is wrought when Satan is allowed to have his say.
Now, usually he doesn’t have his say, very loudly at least, during the course of a service. There may be rumblings occasionally underneath. But he has his chance when those concerned leave the Chapel and return to their daily tasks. And he surely takes advantage of his chance. But as long as he is allowed to take advantage of his chance, then it is quite sure that never when we do gather, at least physically in one place, in the Chapel, will we be with one accord. Never! I have not emphasized this point as pointedly as I am doing it this morning—consequently there has been a tendency to imagine that there have been occasions when we have really been with one accord.
Possibly, in a relative sense, we have experienced more agreement than most people in their gatherings on earth. Perhaps Satan has been a little less assertive during the course of a service than is generally the case on such occasions in the world in general. But it has never been that, when the sons and daughters of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan didn’t also come among them. And he’s here this morning. No matter how earnestly you might have desired to leave him outside the door, you couldn’t do it and still be present in the Chapel.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit of life, characterized by love and truth—not characterized by anything other than love and truth. The word holy derives from the Old English, halig or hal, which is translatable as whole. I turned up the definition of holy in the dictionary this morning, and there is quite an extensive explanation in this regard, but I would read a portion of it: “holy—set apart to the service of God.” The Holy Spirit, then, would be the characteristic expression, totally, of God; nothing else included. Here is the second definition: “characterized by perfection and transcendence; commanding absolute adoration and reverence.” Does the Holy Spirit command absolute adoration and reverence in you, or are there other spirits which exert their commands, commands which you on occasion obey?
The Holy Spirit is absolute, completely whole; nothing else at all. The Holy Spirit is the true spirit of those who compose the reality of what we have called this ministry. There are those who have taken the attitude, of course, that they don’t belong in this ministry. This may be true in the sense that there have been some rather restricted concepts as to what this ministry really is. If it has been looked upon by some as a religious denomination or sect, then certainly everybody doesn’t belong in that—the fact of the matter is that nobody really belongs in that. But if it is seen for what it really is—all-encompassing, all-inclusive—then the fact is that everybody on the face of the earth really belongs in that ministry. There isn’t any other state in which human beings really belong.
It has been the fact of the matter that virtually the total population of mankind has excluded itself from the experience of the fact that they do belong. They have been busy trying to belong to this or that humanly established pattern, whether religious or otherwise, ignoring the real state in which everyone, in fact, belongs. If there is a realization of the true nature of this ministry, and a person says that he does not belong in that, he is saying, in effect, that he does not belong anywhere. And if one does not belong anywhere, and experiences the ultimate state of not belonging anywhere, what would that state be? It has been called death. The person who is dead proves that he does not belong anywhere.
One must be alive to belong somewhere. And the somewhere is describable by the words, this ministry. This ministry is all-inclusive. I’m not talking about a human organization. I’m talking about a state in which human beings really belong, in which they are men and women created by God in the image and likeness of God—that is, the true state. And we can describe it by using words, this ministry.
To describe these things, we have to use words, and these words are very pointed. Perhaps we wouldn’t say these things in a general sense, because most people couldn’t understand. But surely you do. If you feel yourself, at any time, being pushed out, so to speak, you may know exactly why. No one can be pushed out of this ministry against his will. No one is ever excluded. Insofar as the truth of the matter is concerned, everybody is included. If a person insists upon a sense of exclusion, that is that person’s choice. It wasn’t imposed by anyone else, anywhere, at any time. It may have seemed so, if there has been earthly orientation. In earthly orientation the individual can always justify his position; but in earthly orientation it is a false state and what is seen in that state is not true.
The Holy Spirit commands absolute adoration and reverence. This means that the distorted state of human nature has been set aside. But if you try to set aside the distorted state of human nature when you come in through the door into the Chapel, it can’t be done. That set-aside condition is still present with you; it’s a part of what you claim as your identity in your expression of existence. If there is anything that you have to set aside in order, as you think, to come into the Chapel pure and holy, you can’t come into the Chapel in the moments of the expression of your living. You know that it’s gone when the moments of the expression of your living prove it. If there is no proof there, it hasn’t gone. Or if the proof is inconsistent, it hasn’t gone. Inconsistency in this regard proves earthly orientation. Heavenly orientation is characterized by consistency.
If you can slip back into earthly orientation, you don’t know what heavenly orientation is, because if there is heavenly orientation, you can’t slip back into earthly orientation. You’re still just thinking about it or hoping or dedicated, if you can still slip back into earthly orientation. Heavenly orientation is absolute in its nature, and when we know the Holy Spirit of Life we know it; we don’t know anything else. If we know something else, we don’t know the Holy Spirit of Life, because it is whole—it is absolute, it is complete.
We may say, “Oh, well, I touched it.” And remarkable things happen when people touch it, yes. There was a story of the woman with the affliction who touched the hem of the Master’s garment. Marvelous! But what happened to her later, I wonder? No further comment. I doubt if she was consistent. One can be fooled by the wonderful experiences that are known simply because something was touched. If that experience comes because you touched something, what you touched is not yet your experience; it’s separate and apart from you—it must be, for you to touch it. When the truth is known, that’s all that is known; you’re not touching anything. You are that truth in the expression of your living, and you cannot be anything else.
We have so often spoken of absoluteness; but it has been approached rather gently, I think, so that those who heard were not overwhelmed. But there must come a point somewhere along the way where we may say, “That’s it!” If that point never comes, well, we could say that’s it in another way too. How human beings love to justify their ill states, justify the things which they may say need clearing. What is it that needs clearing? One thing and one thing alone: earthly orientation. And that can only be cleared by the experience of heavenly orientation. One can’t manipulate things in earthly orientation to experience what would be experienced in heavenly orientation. There must be the genuine article, heavenly orientation, in one’s own experience, to know what it is.
There have been a great many views about heavenly orientation from the standpoint of earthly orientation. The individual, firmly planted in earthly orientation, is considering heavenly orientation, and one day “I’m making progress.” In what? Well, in earthly orientation, I suppose; shifts occurring in earthly orientation. Some of them look good. But heavenly orientation is not earthly orientation; there’s no similarity even. It is a thing of itself, absolutely. Everyone belongs in heavenly orientation or, to put it another way, in this ministry—because this ministry is the state of heavenly orientation, if it is anything. If it isn’t that, it is nothing. And if there are those who merely observe from the standpoint of earthly orientation, this ministry is, in fact, nothing to them. The state of heavenly orientation remains nothing to those who are experiencing earthly orientation. It may be a concept of the mind, but that is nothing.
Let us not delude ourselves in these matters. Satan is a word that has been used to describe a very wily character who has successfully deluded and deceived human beings for millennia. That’s right, he’s done it. And Satan’s as good a name as any to describe the character of human beings in earthly orientation. In that state human beings can fool themselves, and have fooled themselves, constantly. Thus far, very few who lived on earth ever came out of the state of deception. But now we’d better do it. We’d better be willing to do it, and we’d better be willing to stop fooling ourselves, to stop deliberately maintaining the state of earthly orientation because we are absolutely centered in the Holy Spirit.
“Out of Egypt have I called my son.” These words, O Lord, we may remember this morning. It is our great privilege to have sufficient vision to see beyond the state of self-delusion in which human beings have existed ever since they denied and betrayed Thee. So would we accept the reality of integrity, that there may be no shadow of turning, no continuing insistence upon wallowing in the various states consequent upon earthly orientation, while occasionally rising so that our heads are above this morass. When we do rise to this extent, we recognize that there is another state; but until that other state, which is a consistent state, is accepted, we do not really know what it is.
How thankful we are, O Lord, for the assurance of the strength and stability of Thy Holy Spirit, by which we may be held steady and sure in the expression of Life on earth, to Thy glory, in the Christ. Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts. Glory be to Thee, O Lord most high.
© Emisaries of Divine Light
