Spiritual Leadership And Authority

My  Voice  Sounds  In  My  Composite  Body

Martin Cecil  October 7, 1979

World events are the magnified surface evidences of the spirit of God in action. Those who share the Voice of the Lord, speaking in His name, are the spirit of God in action. As there are such who have assumed spiritual responsibility, the controlled fulfilment of the creative purposes of God in this world must come to pass.

There was One who lived on earth many centuries ago who accepted this Supreme spiritual responsibility of leadership on earth. His name was Jesus. He did not receive wide acceptance; certainly not by the religious authorities of that day, although there were one or two amongst them who were somewhat moved by His expression of spirit. Nicodemus was amongst these. Nevertheless He Himself never denied His own spiritual authority. He didn't impose it on anyone. He invited an acceptance of it but He didn't try to impose it upon anyone. He was rejected, denied, betrayed, crucified. Moving in this particular path He opened a door for the restoration of man at some future time. He also made sure that human nature would receive its just deserts. In receiving the fulness of the results of its own action it would be dissolved.

We live in the day of its dissolution. The die was cast a long time ago, but there is a point of fulfilment. We certainly would not attempt to prognosticate the day or the hour of the completion. We can prognosticate very easily the movement toward that completion. We are in position to observe it on every hand. Surface events in the world proclaim this movement—their significance is in that proclamation alone. The dissolution of human nature is at hand; how closely at hand remains to be seen. It is closely at hand for some individuals, of course. This is so daily. But for the larger fulfilment we make no attempt to prophesy. No man knoweth the day or the hour, not even the angels of heaven. So why bother? There are plenty of people in the world who make prognostications from time to time; none of them thus far have been fulfilled. We are interested in the fulfilment, not in the prognostications.

That fulfilment comes as there are those who speak the Word of the Lord on earth, who share this Voice. This is then the spirit of God in action within the body and the consciousness of mankind. The spirit of God has been in action ceaselessly throughout the whole universe; but it hasn't been known in the ordained creative expression, in a manner that would permit the fulfilment in the body and the consciousness of mankind, heretofore. If it had been known before this there would have been fulfilment before this. Even the Master Himself could not bring that fulfilment as one person. He did not attempt to do the impossible. He was willing to let it work out, in the only way it could at that time, with respect to Himself as an individual; but that cast the die for the future, the future which is now.

There are those on earth who have begun to share the expression of the Word of the Lord, so that His Voice may sound on earth; immediately the controlled expression of the spirit of God is present within the body and consciousness of mankind. This is a present fact in a certain measure, at a certain level. The results which occur and are observable as world events are different in these days to what they have been in the past. There was little happening in the past to resolve anything, for this could not occur until there was present on earth a sufficiency of the spirit of God in action. This is occurring now and the events, the world events, are unfolding in a more or less inevitable manner. We witness these on every hand. As I say, all this is consequent upon the spirit of God in action. There is more action to be brought forth, there is a larger experience to be known in this regard, that the books may be balanced and the human business wound up. Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled.

My concern has always been to find those who would share my Voice, who would speak with me, that the spirit of God might be adequately in action in the body and consciousness of mankind on earth. There have been those in times past, and even today, who are looking for a fulfilment of this sort. It might be describable in terms of the second coming of Jesus, and also in other ways. There is a looking for leadership. Those who think of themselves as Christians, the more sincere ones at least, are waiting with bated breath for the return of this figure. But who is it they are really waiting for?

Long ago there was some poetry written that has come to be called the Song of Solomon. Many people have felt there was something significant in these words; they have tried to interpret them in various ways. There are certain words from this song which have become familiar to us because we have used them quite frequently, recognizing that they have a meaning relative to the present. The first verse is this: “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”

Here is a beautiful picture of spiritual leadership of some kind toward which response is being invited and, indeed, apparently being offered to some extent. The one who provides this spiritual leadership is spoken of as “the Beloved.” Someone must have loved this one, whoever this one might be. Who is he that cometh leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills? I suppose good Christians would see Jesus achieving this feat. But who is the beloved? Others would say the Lord, not necessarily equating the Lord with Jesus. But who is the Lord? If we consider either of these two possibilities—maybe they're one, the Lord and Jesus—then who is being talked about or considered or believed in? A figure in a stained glass window, a figure in a beautiful painting, a concept handed down out of the past? Who is he? It's nice to have someone who can't really be identified, because then it's an open season for everybody to fill in the details in their own imagination. But the fact of the matter is that this figure has been a mental construct, a human invention. I'm not saying that there may not be a reality, but how is that reality to be known?

The reality could have been known when there was One on earth who accepted the responsibility of it and revealed it. This was done by the One called Jesus. The One called Jesus today is an imaginary figure; there are all kinds of beliefs about Him. But there is the continuing apparent need for spiritual leadership. Human beings have been waiting in one way or another for that spiritual leadership to put in an appearance. Some have believed that this one was a spiritual leader, some have believed that the other one was. But on the basis of the extent of our awareness of the truth, we see that those who emerge in this fashion onto the surface of world events, out of this human state of consciousness, are the result of something else.

What would your view be in this matter? Where is the spiritual leadership? Who is “he” who comes in the Name of the Lord? There was one person a long time ago who came in the name of the Lord. He Himself was recognized by some as one who spoke with authority, not like the scribes. He was conscious of His own authority. He knew that the answer could not be found by the eruptions on the surface of the human state; the high priest wasn't going to make available the spiritual leadership that was necessary, because it does not come out of the body of mankind but, rather, down from God out of heaven. Surely that's where good Christians are looking for the second coming of Christ: down from God out of heaven. But how? What would make sense? What would be factual and not merely imaginary? There has been an imaginary hope in this regard for a long time.

If there has been reference to a Beloved, to “He,” to one who comes in the Name of the Lord, of whom it might be said, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” who is He? We have some dawning awareness of a reality here which is of a factual nature and no longer clothed in imagination. Sooner or later there needs to be the Beloved, or “he”, present if the job is to be done. It cannot be done otherwise. And this He, this One, is not a single individual. As I have pointed out, it could not be done by a single individual, even by the Lord Himself. It requires what we would call a collective Body, with a collective consciousness—all this in Oneness—so that there is One who comes in the Name of the Lord. There is a Beloved on earth, present with human beings, whose Voice sounds and who comes leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. This indicates an ease of movement, does it not?—a naturalness and an ease of movement, a triumphant movement high above the level of human nature consciousness. There are those who have been invited to participate in the authority of this One.

How much do you, as an individual, still glance around to see if you can spot, somewhere or other, a spiritual leader of some kind who is going to achieve great things? A few thought they had him spotted in me. I have been at pains to disillusion those who have this view, because He who comes in the Name of the Lord is not one person. The coming of one person was done nineteen centuries ago. All that could be accomplished has been accomplished by one person; and that one person was, indeed, a Supreme One. But no matter how Supreme He really was, and is, He could only do so much. He did not come to impose the Kingdom; He came to invite the remnant to receive it. As He said, “It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” No one was holding back, and no one has been holding back since; and yet year after year, day after day, good Christians pray, “Thy kingdom come,” having the attitude in fact that our Father is holding back on it; He has to be persuaded to cause it to come. But it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom—two thousand years ago!

So we have this spiritual responsibility of leadership, not to impose the Kingdom but to let it come by reason of those who respond to the invitation to do so. But the invitation must be extended. When these words were written they were written by one, presumably Solomon, who had a rather frustrating experience in life, or in his existence, shall we say; he got embroiled in human nature. Yet at the start he had some sensing of the reality, of the truth, some sensing of a Beloved, of He who would come leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. He apparently wrote about this, looking for that one, looking for the answer, looking for the Lord. Human beings have been looking for the Lord for a long time, as though He wasn't present. Are there those of us, present on earth now, who could properly rephrase these words?

“My Voice sounds on earth! behold, I come leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

“I am like a roe or a young hart: behold, I stand behind the wall of human nature, I look forth at the windows, I show myself through the lattice of human nature.

“I speak to human consciousness, and I say, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away, come away with me, to be with me, to let this Voice resound on earth, that it may be heard by those whose hearts are sufficiently open to hear it.”

Those who do hear it, and start to come away, reveal in their experience the creative action of the spirit of God, the evidence of that, that they may be restored to share in the expression of that Voice. There are some who move strongly and clearly in this fashion. This is, after all, the starting point for anyone who is to experience restoration to the truth. There are others who move sluggishly. It may be seen, then, that there is One who comes in the Name of the Lord on earth, not one person but One Unified Body and Consciousness, by reason of which the spirit of God is in action within the body and consciousness of mankind. This is the One who has the authority. This is the One who provides the leadership. While we may see that that leadership, to be effective, must be a Composite Body, nevertheless it is a composite body because the individuals who compose it have taken responsibility for their own spiritual authority.

We cannot look to the Pope, or to any other high figure in the religious world, or in the philosophical world, or in the intellectual world, or indeed in the political world, anywhere, as though someone else was going to do what needs to be done. This has always been the trouble in the world, has it not? “Let it be by the hand of another.” And there were those who were interested in trading upon this attitude which human beings tend to have, so that they might exercise control and spurious authority over people. As long as one is looking for someone else to provide the essential spiritual leadership one can be easily deluded, one can be easily trapped. Human beings everywhere have been rushing into these traps constantly. The world is filled with hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, of these mousetraps—all baited with the essential cheese—and human beings, with great enthusiasm, rush into their bondage. When they get caught, then they blame other people for it. How ridiculous! They wouldn't have been caught in the first place if they had been taking responsibility for themselves, but they didn't and they were caught—being caught, they still don't take responsibility for themselves; they have to find some other scapegoat. This has been done within the range of the experience of every individual who is here present, and it is still being done in some measure.

When there is the spiritual action in controlled expression emerging in the body and consciousness of mankind, as it is beginning to do, then the dragon is cast out of heaven—he's cast out into the earth. And he has great wrath. Why? Because he knows that he has but a short time. All sorts of nonsense spews out of the dragon's mouth in the earth. Of course, for those who abide in heaven it doesn't make much difference; he's wasting his time anyway. But he's easily spotted, you know. The accuser of our brethren: that's what he was called, wasn't he? So when you see or hear someone mouthing accusations, you know who's doing it. It saddens me a little at times to realize that after all these years he's still present on Sunrise Ranch. But that's the way it is; we need to face the fact. There are those who have sustained him and kept him alive with their accusations. But there is the heaven. And those who dwell in the heaven, those who participate in the Voice of the One, these carry the authority of God because they come in the Name of the Lord. Certainly these also are present here and there as well, composing a body, a Body which speaks with authority and is never deluded into imagining that there is anyone else anywhere going to provide the essential spiritual leadership. There isn't. It is provided in this One Composite Body; and each member of that Body must know for him- or herself, “I am the One who carries the authority.” Do you think that is too much to be experienced? If it isn't experienced on earth by those who have been offered the opportunity there is no hope for anyone, because there can be no spiritual leadership on earth.

The spiritual leadership of a single individual has long ago been rejected by the children of men; so that opportunity will not be repeated. The Master came on earth, He was rejected on earth; that's that. The only way left is by reason of this Composite Body, the True Vine of which the Master spoke. The fruit of that True Vine is the spiritual action which brings forth what is to be brought forth throughout the Body and the consciousness of mankind. It is now happening. The spiritual leadership and authority is present on earth. You have an awareness as to where it is. Never look for it anywhere else!

We may, having that authority, acknowledge value where value appears in the spiritual sense. It seems to me the Master did this, even to the extent of acknowledging that one of the Romans, a soldier indeed, had more faith, more openness and yieldedness to spirit, than He had found anywhere else in the whole of Israel. He acknowledged that the centurion was this quality of man, but He didn't turn over the reins of authority to the centurion. How ridiculous! He Himself had the authority. He knew what He was doing. This man, whom He acknowledged, acknowledged that he knew what he was able to do in his particular field of responsibility; but he saw the Master in a much larger field of responsibility. Why did he see that? He was open to recognize what was the truth of the matter, what the fact was, as revealed by the Master Himself. He demonstrated His authority.

Do you think that there are those here present who are capable of acknowledging that authority—you, perhaps, as an individual, relative to yourself, saying, “I am the Voice. I am the One who comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. I am the One with the spiritual authority”? Woe unto those who try to imitate it! That doesn't work. But the opportunity has been available, the invitation has been extended, for years. Just a handful have been willing to accept it. Quite a few have been willing to hear, to listen, to hear the Word of the Lord, and even to say, “Yes, that...that...that's the Word of the Lord all right. That...that's very true. I...I...I have realizations; I'd like to tell you about them.” For those who hear, realizations may have value for a while, until they reach the point of doing something. Then they can forget their realizations, because they will discover what the fact is, what the actual experience is; and that is unlikely to jibe with even the best Emissary realizations. I've been regaled with realizations for years. I don't think I'm any the wiser for it, because it is always what one expresses oneself that counts: that you know. Constructs of the mind are fancies, imagination.

The Voice of authority sounds on earth as there are those who personally, as individuals, accept the responsibility of it—not just one day, but now. Then what might be referred to as the second coming of Christ is an immediate reality; it is spiritual action by which spiritual purposes are fulfilled on the basis of the attitudes and works and choices of human beings all over the face of the earth. It may be said that they are compelled, but they are not told what choice to make. The invitation is extended, and it can be accepted or it can be rejected, but all have to abide by the results of their choice. In a general sense that choice is made largely unconsciously. It is made on the basis of the person's works, the way he behaves, what the quality of his character is. This reveals the choice that is being made. We have become aware of these things, so we have a particular advantage. We can accept the right character and stop glorifying the character of the accuser. Accepting spiritual authority, spiritual leadership is provided and what we are on earth to do gets done. There is no question.

I trust there are those within the sound of My Voice, and those who are beyond the sound of My Voice at this present time, who acknowledge the truth of these things in their own living.

© emissaries of divine light