This Sunday morning service follows Supreme Council, which was in session last week. There were twelve individuals who attended all the sessions, as well as several more who were present at some. This is what happened in the external sense, but all who shared that same spirit, though they may not have been present in person, had the opportunity of being present in spirit. Clearly, to be effective and to allow things to work the way they really do, a smaller number of individuals would be required to meet in person. This does not make it an exclusive gathering, because all are welcome in spirit; and to the extent of purity of heart all shared in spirit.
What is really happening from the standpoint of the movement of the spirit of God may emerge somewhat out of the mists and be observed. There are no decisions to be made, because they are already made. Things are working the way they really work, whether as human beings we have been aware of it or not. What is required of us is to become aware of it and thus to participate in an effective way with what is consequently allowed to take form. We all have some experience of this, according to the extent of our own purity of heart. Human beings in the world as it has been find themselves seemingly under the necessity of making weighty decisions. This is all included in the sweat of the face, but it isn’t the real way.
The spirit moves. That movement determines what shall be. What shall be, of course, is modified by the way human beings behave and react, but such behavior and reaction are consequent upon the movement of spirit. The viewpoint of spirit, of course, is not blind to the way human beings are likely to behave and react, so it is all taken into account. But it may be clearly seen that when human beings stop behaving and reacting in their usual human ways the spirit will have a clear shot. Then what needs to occur naturally occurs, and all may participate in it easily and with delight.
We ourselves are in position to allow this to become known on earth in our own experience. There are others in other places, likewise, who are letting this occur, but the opportunity is open to everyone. What ease and naturalness and delight could be in the experience of all people on the face of the earth. It comes forth in some measure for us. If we find ourselves at times in difficulties it is because we produced those difficulties. We are all well aware of this. Someone else wasn’t responsible, just oneself.
So we have the opportunity of coming into line with the way things really are and the way things really work. That is the way of easiness, of naturalness and of delight. But the moment we try to make things work the way we humanly think they should we’re in trouble, and we begin to proliferate our difficulties and our so-called problems—all self-produced. What a great thing it is finally to take responsibility for the way things are in our own experience. Taking that responsibility, we are taking responsibility for the way things are in our worlds. But it takes a real man or a woman to do it.
The spirit is in motion. It always has been and always will be. That motion we have described in various terms. It is indeed the Word. Obviously, to know what the Word is in the moment it is necessary to hear it. There has been such a cacophony of noise humanly produced that the Word has not been heard at all by most human beings on the face of the earth. You know, we hear what we listen for. To hear the Word, we must listen for the Word. This ability to listen is important.
I recently had a letter from Hugh Malafry in which he emphasized this point. I would read a few sentences which are pertinent to our present consideration: “It is the heart that listens; the ears are agents only.” If this is so, then the purity or the impurity of the heart will determine what we hear. Then there is this short paragraph: “I wonder if we have ever really heard what there is to hear. Sometimes one hears complaints that we’ve heard it all so many times. I wonder if we’ve even heard it once, really, without imposing distortion upon what we’ve heard. The skill refines, thank God, or it would all be hopeless. But is it not time to really take stock of this simple capacity upon which so much depends—the ability to purely listen.”
It was written: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” But according to what is present in the heart the ear heareth. There has been the idea sometimes that there has been a good deal of repetition in what I have said, for instance. If this is true, I wonder why. Was it because I couldn’t have said anything else? Or was it because those who were present didn’t hear what I was saying, because they had never learned to listen? Obviously, in the world as we know it scarcely anyone ever listens to anyone else. In a way I suppose that’s all right, because no one else has much to say! But usually it is a matter of putting up with what other people are saying, waiting for a chance to say what you have to say—so on that basis no one ever listens to anyone else.
Presumably over the years we have been learning to listen in some measure but, as Hugh wrote in his letter, we may well wonder if we really heard what has been provided even once, because according to what is in the heart our ears have heard. And if our hearts have been impure we certainly haven’t heard the truth. We impose upon the Word what is present in our own hearts. This capacity to listen is dependent upon our hearts and the state of them. If it is to be pure listening, we must have pure hearts.
Yes, this capacity does refine if we are willing to let it. I’m sure that all of you have heard something said in a service, for instance, and later read it in printed form, discovering that you hadn’t seen at the time what you now saw. You may have heard, at a service, something which had been presented before, possibly in different terms—I usually try to make it more interesting that way, but I could, for the most part, have given the same service quite a number of times, because it wasn’t heard in the first place—but you may have heard something said again, and suddenly, as it has been put, “the penny drops,” and you think you understand. Well some impurity of heart may have slipped away but I doubt that the purity is absolute yet.
I have noted, over the years, people distorting what I have said, in their own ways, being quite sincere about it, not trying to cause trouble, but trouble has been caused thereby. It is unwise to repeat what you do not yet know. We are here to know the truth, and it is wise to be rather silent until we are in position to express it. We have in times past, probably more so than now, thought we knew so much and wanted to tell everybody about it. But what we knew wasn’t the truth. And if it wasn’t the truth, what was it?
We learn to listen. The listening is of a different kind; it is not merely hearing sounds in the ordinary way, but a listening to the spirit. Listen to that first, not being so concerned with the form. Very often those of rather simple understanding, but with open hearts, hear the soundless sound of the spirit with greater clarity than those with complicated intellects, because what is present in the intellect tends to be imposed upon what may be faintly sensed of the spirit. That is describable as blasphemy.
The vast majority of people can sense the spirit if they are open to listen for it. They can be moved by it, be delighted because of it, without necessarily understanding or giving form to what it is that the spirit may be conveying in the moment. In fact that is unnecessary for most people. If they are willing to move with the spirit of God because they listen for it, then there is the experience of life—life is found to be a song and a dance. One can hum the music of a song without knowing the words of it. One can dance without specifically being instructed as to where one should put one’s feet. As there is indeed a listening to spirit there is the movement in life—something natural, something wonderful, something easy, something delightful, something which is experienced and doesn’t have to be explained.
I think from the usual Emissary viewpoint it was thought very important that one should be able to explain everything to somebody. That usually confuses them. Rather, let them sense what the movement with life is because one is, oneself, moving with it. It wouldn’t be a particularly enjoyable experience, should one enjoy dancing, if every few steps you had to stop and explain, or be explained to, as to what it was that was happening. How much better just to enjoy the happening! And to the vast majority of people on earth this is all that is necessary. There are those, fewer in number, who rightly have a specific conscious awareness emerging out of the mists of human concept, so that they may give particular focus to the movement of life, the movement of life in form on earth. If we have awakened somewhat in this way, then we have a particular responsibility, fundamentally for our own movement and then for that which relates to the movement of the whole.
Life is very powerful, and once there is a conscious focus of life on earth then it increasingly has opportunity to move in an unconscious way for people everywhere. It has heretofore obviously been distorted and twisted and caused to take form in destructive ways. But finally, as there are those appearing on earth who are so aligned with the movement of life that the mists clear for them and they see what is happening, then direction is given for the movement of life as it is experienced through all who have at least somewhat open hearts. The closed heart will continue to make trouble for itself and for those who have closed hearts.
Now life begins to move under intelligent control within the range of human experience, that all may share in the wonder of it, not because they know exactly what is happening but because they discover, when they are aligned with life, how delightful it is. They discover the steps of the dance. They begin to hear the music of the dance. What a joyous and fulfilling experience! Most people don’t really want to know the ins and outs of it—just have the experience. It is necessary that some should begin to know something of the ins and outs of it, so that the music may be sustained and the basic steps of the dance brought into form.
During the Supreme Council there were those who were present, at any given session, who had some conscious awareness of what it was that was emerging out of the mist. They didn’t put it in the mist; it was there already. All that was necessary was for the mists to be dissipated in some measure in their own consciousness, so that it might be seen. Human beings have been so earnest, and determined to push their own views of things, usually with the best of intentions, failing utterly to comprehend that the truth is already present, that things are the way they are and are working the way they work. As there are those present on earth who begin to be in position to discern what it is that is coming out of the mists in this regard, then there may be alignment with the way things work and what it is that is actually happening, instead of trying to impose human determinations upon the truth, thereby bringing untold tribulation into the world—for this is exactly what has been being done for centuries, millennia. But now a clarification may come, and we have a responsibility to let it come.
We may discover that some of our brightest schemes have no value whatsoever. Is that going to be a shattering experience? Or is it going to be a delightful one? It is a delightful one if we discover what is really happening. Then we don’t need our brightest schemes anymore. We can participate in the truth, know the truth—but it requires that we listen. We can’t hear if we don’t listen, and we need to listen at a level which is beyond our schemes. If we have axes to grind, all we will hear is grinding axes, and that will utterly blot out what is there to be heard of the true spirit.
Listen! for the sound of many waters,
Listen! for the sound of the rushing wind,
Listen! for the sound of the silent earth,
Listen! for the sound of the radiant sun.
Listen!
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Let your ear be tuned to this sound because your heart is; for what is present in your heart will determine what you hear. Listen for the sounds of the spirit. These sounds have always been with us but we have had no ears to hear them, because we didn’t listen. All that has been offered over the years through these services is the opportunity to learn to listen to the sound of the spirit. Then there is no need for interpretation, which is invariably misinterpretation. But the Word is heard when you learn to listen. It is here present with us in this moment. It is in motion in this moment.
As our hearts and ears are attuned to that movement, then the rich substance of spirit may fill every part of our physical bodies. It may flow forth through every part, perhaps particularly through our arms, our hands, our fingers, but it floods through the flesh of our bodies. Do you think, if that is so, the physical form can remain the same? Would this not bring the reality of healing? Or do you think you are going to be healed by eating the right food, or by taking the right exercise? The spirit, the reality of life, pours forth when allowed to do so because we listen, and consequently hear, and so find natural attunement with the movement of spirit. Then the substance of spirit may fill our physical forms, our minds and our hearts and, pouring forth, fill the environment, so that the fire of God may fall from heaven.
This is a transforming fire, but how can it work, how can it be known, unless it can be received? And how can it be received if we do not hear the spirit by which it comes? And how can we hear that spirit without listening? What is it we listen to? I’ve sometimes heard people complain that they find others round about coming and pouring their troubles out to them. Why do you think that must be? Because you are accustomed to listening to troubles. If you are accustomed to listening to troubles you are not accustomed to listening to the spirit. Oh, there is a flood of troubles covering the face of the earth, plenty to listen to if that is what you want to hear. Some sincerely listen to that stuff, imagining that if they hear it then they will be able to do something about it. What ridiculous nonsense!
There is something happening now, in this moment, which would sweep all the troubles from the face of the earth in a moment if there were those present who would let it happen. They will not let it happen if they are listening to the troubles—all that happens then is an increase of troubles. But listen to the spirit, listen to the Word, listen to the power of life, and move with that because you hear it. When you do, then you comprehend, you see; but you never see until you listen and consequently hear.
Here are the words of Job: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear”—that is indeed a first necessity. In actual fact a lot of people have heard about the truth, have heard about God, without ever having heard the spirit or heard the Word. One must listen to hear the Word, and when the Word is heard—“but now mine eye seeth thee.” Now there is the experience of oneness.
Christians talk about God and man being reconciled by Jesus Christ. Well that’s a nice thought, but the attitude that has been taken in fact says, in effect, that Jesus Christ didn’t get the job done; we’re still waiting for it to be finished. He's busy up there, over there somewhere, pleading with God presumably, so that God may change His mind about man. How utterly foolish! How about man changing his mind about God? No, Jesus Christ did His job. The failure has been utterly on the part of man, and very particularly on the part of those who call themselves Christians, because in fact they could have known better if they would. The experience of oneness with God is the reconciliation which thus far human beings have rejected. It has been available for anyone and everyone. Now there begin to be those on the face of the earth who stop fooling themselves because they begin to know the truth—but only to the extent that they have learned to listen, to hear what is actually happening, what is really on the move. When that is heard with the hearing of the ears, as it has been put, then immediately this begins to be seen, understood, comprehended, because we share in the happening. We ourselves are the happening. That’s how we know it, the only way it can be known, and that is man beginning to be reconciled with God. But the experience itself is that of oneness, no separation between God and man, the reality in one’s own experience.
So indeed, let us listen, listen to the spirit that has always been available to be heard when we turn our hearts away from the humanly produced noise of the world. Then we hear; then we begin to understand; the we begin to know the truth, and the truth makes free. Lord God of creation, holy art Thou.
William Bahan — Martin, what a privilege it was to not only just listen to you this morning but to move, as we have moved, vigorously with you. As you mentioned, all the troubles could so easily vanish away. The word of the Lord is, it came to pass, not it came to stay! We’re here to let all things be made new, and they are made new, surely, in the current of the spirit, just as the spirit moving this morning allows us to have a brand-new consciousness in this hour.
Martin Cecil — The consciousness of the glory, the wonder, the beauty of life, known because there is a willingness to listen and to live.
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