from
Pour You Out A Blessing
Martin Cecil May 30, 1976
As usual after a Sunday morning service, I received quite a number of letters, some of them very excellent. There is one that I would like to share with you this evening. It was written by Pat Zaher. She says:
“The Holy Spirit of Life is evidenced everywhere as a flow out. If I am possessed of the Holy Spirit, my mind may not be able to categorize its qualities, but my heart feels, senses, only a flow OUT—a COMPLETE flow OUT. In heavenly orientation there is in my capacities ONLY that which gives. If there is still any wish to act in such a way that anything, no matter how seemingly ‘needful,’ might flow in—i.e., be pulled toward me—here is earthly orientation. If in my consciousness there are any voids-to-be-filled in me—Satan is still sitting pretty. All the voids-to-be-filled are out there, to be filled with ME—I AM the completeness which flows ever outward, ever outward, to fill the empty places in the world in the cycles of the Lord’s creative purposes. There is nothing else, no other reason to be here, no blessing to be found, no fulfilment to be sought. There is only MYSELF to be poured out a blessing into the earth, always, always, forever and ever without pause and without end. HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!’’
We were considering this morning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In this letter of response it is rather accurately and beautifully summarized. That outpouring is characterized by fire. In the story of the Day of Pentecost long ago, when the disciples and others were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem to be with one accord in one place, there was a mighty rushing wind, or the sound like unto that. But the cycle was completed with fire. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit relates to the fire which falls from heaven—a fire of great intensity. This morning, in the comment period down at my house, I mentioned this matter of fire by which changes are wrought in the internal state of human beings. It has been emphasized that only spiritual expression gets the job done. Nothing that the human mind can do, no manipulations on its part, can accomplish what needs to happen.
The human mind is present in human beings on the basis of the quality of material of which human beings are composed. This quality is present in the very flesh of human beings. As the human mind is simply the consciousness of the flesh, it can be seen that there is not too much distinction between mind and body. It is said that the earthly factors of heredity are recorded in chemical terms within the cells of the body. These hereditary factors, being part of the flesh of the body, are also part of the mental equipment. As long as these hereditary factors, in the earthly sense, are dominant in human experience and expression, clearly there is the fact of what we have called earthly orientation. The individual is simply revealing what is present in his flesh in the earthly sense. In this way the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children even unto the third and fourth generation, and more. And it has seemed to many that they had good excuse for their rather despicable behavior on occasion. As long as earthly orientation prevails, Satan is sitting pretty. The individual jumps to his command, albeit for the most part quite unconscious of the fact that this is what he is doing. He may claim to be free, but no human being in earthly orientation is ever free.
Seeing that this is the condition in which people everywhere find themselves, it may look like an impossible task that it should ever be caused to change. If the mind, which itself needs to change, is looking at the picture, it can really see no way by which anything might be done. Various concepts have been developed as to the possibility of somehow breeding a super race of human beings. This would be the lowest kind of science fiction, I would suppose. No. Only by the Holy Spirit can the changes be caused to appear. The Holy Spirit has opportunity to initiate such changes to the extent that there is a willingness on the part of the individual to let it occur in spite of the dire warnings of the human intellect. We’ve often used the quote from the Old Testament: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.” This is the only way it works. Human beings have been a little inclined, if they have given any consideration to the matter of spirit, to sit around waiting for the spirit to come and do its work. The fault, if it doesn’t happen, is then easily laid at the door of the spirit: “There I was, waiting—I’d been waiting for years maybe—and the spirit never did anything.” Some excuse the spirit by taking the attitude that the ways of God are inscrutable and therefore we just have to abide in patience until He finally gets around to releasing some of this efficacious spirit. But it isn’t really that way. Human beings may have thought that they were waiting for the spirit when in fact the spirit was waiting for human beings.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is obviously something flowing out. If one is identified with the expression of the Holy Spirit, which is spiritual expression, then one is identified with the experience of an outflow. This is the Holy Spirit, complete and entire, nothing else. So there is nothing else but the outflow in the experience. That outflow is consequent upon what we have called heavenly orientation. Should there be anything which a person feels he has to get to himself then there is identification to that extent with an inflow. And the inflow state will in that person’s experience frustrate or prevent the outflow. If the outflow is prevented heavenly orientation is dissolved and earthly orientation prevails.
There have been, over the years, many martyrs in the world, some of them so designated because they were burned at the stake. I’m not thinking of those quite so much as the rest of us who have felt, at times, that we were sacrificing something by serving the Lord. We were being very good; we were going to serve the Lord and surely He would look kindly upon the afflictions that we must suffer because of this attitude on our part. What blasphemous arrogance! When we are identified with what is flowing out we have no sense of lack. The Lord is my shepherd; I do not want.
That outflow relates to the fire force—a high-intensity radiation. In my comments this morning after service, someone had mentioned how the program on an audio tape may be expunged by running it through the recorder with the correct setting on the head, so that the electrical impulse would dissipate the recording on the tape. This provides an analogy which relates to what we are talking about now with respect to the fire. For that recording to be expunged from the tape, the tape must be close to the head; it must run past the head, so to speak, so that the radiation from the head can get the job done. By the same token, one may put a tape on which there is a recording into the machine and record a new message on it at the same time that the old one is being expunged. If we consider this analogy in application to ourselves it may be seen that it is important to stay close to the recording head, because the process of the fire is not only to expunge what is already on the human tape but to record a new message, a heavenly message, the message of heavenly heredity.
There is a means by which that untrue recording may be erased and the true recording established in its place. The means is by the fire, the fire which is known by reason of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This may occur in a gathering such as this in varying degrees, according to the closeness of the tapes, in those concerned, to the recording head. If there is even a little gap in between, it won’t work too effectively. The deeper changes that are needed can only occur when there is, in effect, oneness between the recording head and the recording. Perhaps some of the shallower elements on the recording can be changed a little by being in the vicinity of the recording head when there is the development of sufficient intensity. Such changes have occurred in the experience of many of you, and others. If they are real changes, they have come to pass on this basis, because there was some closeness with the recording head experienced by reason of an open heart.
However, we may take note of the fact that there are other heads around. The beast or the dragon, as I recall, had at least seven of them, all ready and prepared to replace the erased recording with another one of a similar nature. That replacement occurs when a person gets too close to one of those heads. If he or she does this, the recording is firmly established to the extent that there is oneness with the quality of spirit which characterizes that head, or those heads. Now, you know when you find yourself expressing a spirit of envy, jealousy, resentment, martyrdom, self-pity, or any of these spirits, that you are one with that spirit and therefore one with that recording head. Then, whatever is put on your tape is either being rerecorded or the recording is being established more deeply.
There is only one way by which the change may come, and that is by being close to the true recording head and staying close. Now, what has often occurred is that those who attended a service, for instance, for the moment came close, so that there was an intensification, a certain measure of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sufficient to produce some changes in those concerned. Those changes were, perhaps, felt quite vividly during the service because the individual, during that period, was close to the recording head, so that some recording had been made of the true nature. But then this matter of being close to the recording head is forgotten, to whatever degree, when the individual goes forth, and there are all these other recording heads waiting around to re-establish the old message. And the individual goes right back close to the old recording heads, and then wonders why changes don’t seem to occur as is expected. Of course they don’t! We are only safe to the extent that we stay close to the true recording head, because the message isn’t complete yet; in fact, one might question as to when it would ever be complete. There is something to be recorded in every moment that is right and fitting in the moment.
How about the sound that is coming through you, the recording that is playing by reason of you? Does something accurate begin to be heard by others, and then it starts to squeal? Or some other noise drowns it out, or simply a blank? If that occurs, then obviously, in those spaces, you were not close to the recording head. You allowed, perhaps, a bit of dirt to get in between, and so it messed things up. We need to see it clearly, that these works, and greater works collectively, can only be achieved by the fire which falls from heaven. It is not enough that the fire should fall from heaven, but that we should be on hand, close, to let it operate in our own continuing experience, so that all the falsity of our earthly heredity may be blotted out. It is not only a matter of being blotted out, leaving an empty tape. If that should happen, then no doubt seven worse spirits would come in to occupy the space, because you would be drawn close to the seven heads of the beast once again. There must be something recorded. Let the recording stay put because you stay close to the recording head. It is the fire of love which consumes a person who stays close to the Lord. And in consuming, all the distorted patterns are eliminated, dissolved. In the individual sense, those distorted patterns are going to be dissolved by the fire eventually in any case, and that dissolution tends to be a rather painful business. In an attitude of thankfulness for the joy of drawing close to the Lord, so that the fire of His love may fall from heaven, all that is necessary may be achieved easily.
I mentioned this morning that those who have actually experienced heavenly orientation never again experience earthly orientation. They may be aware of what is present in earthly orientation but, as Pat put it in her letter, that’s out there. It is not what I am; it is not what you are. You are poured out a blessing. The fire does not burn the fire. And when you are one with the fire, there is no sense of heat. There may be an awareness of power, but because that power is you it is not uncomfortable. It may, perhaps, be uncomfortable for somebody else who is not open to be one with the fire. If there is resistance to the intensification, it is a painful and unhappy business.
I have noted various ones who are unhappy at times. The unhappier they get the better! Maybe they’ll decide it isn’t worthwhile. But, paradoxically, many people seem to take the attitude that they are only happy when they are unhappy, otherwise why would they stay that way? No one who has been in the vicinity of the recording head could excuse himself on the basis of ignorance. Others, in other places, conceivably might. But we have no excuses; we know better. How a person can lie around, wallowing in a state of unhappiness for months, and even years, always seems to me quite incredible. Here is something I don’t really understand. And yet, it is done. Nonsensical, isn’t it? Particularly if there has been any true vision at all. And why would anyone be in the vicinity of the recording head if there had not been the experience of some true vision? To take the attitude that what had been seen in that sense isn’t worth very much, that all the miseries are worth more, is a very contradictory attitude to take, isn’t it? Quite unnecessary. Not only for the person concerned but for other people, because nobody can indulge himself in unhappiness, for instance, without bumping up against other people. Why not agree with the truth instead of with a lie?
As there is agreement with the truth, then there is a flowing out. And that flowing out is so strong that nothing can check it. Again, the supreme example of that was in Jesus. That flowing out was so strong that nothing human beings could do to Him could check it; it was still there. Now, it is this outflow that is the awakening process. We have noted that the head of the body awakens first. Before the head is awake, it may be in a sort of twilight zone where there is an awareness of something but not very much yet. In that sort of state, the awakening of the body of the Son of God, there was much concern to find others who might become members of the body of the Son of God. There was no real awareness that it already existed, it was asleep. As we begin to awaken we become aware of the fact that the whole body is present. We’re not frantically running around trying to collect one individual in a million to participate in what we think of as our ministry. There is a whole body already on hand. It’s all there, quite complete, quite adequate. You don’t have to make it be; it’s there.
What is needed is that we should awaken to the fact that it is there. Perchance this is what is happening to some degree. We begin to discover that as we emerge from our slumbers there are a whole lot of other people around. “Amazing! I didn’t think they were there before,” but they were. All of you have been around for quite a number of years. I personally wasn’t in position to notice a lot of you for quite a while, and then you put in an appearance. There you were. Where did you come from? You were there all the time. And so it is with the whole body; it’s been there all the time, and will continue to be there.
