The Flaming Sword and the Capstone
Martin Cecil September 5, 1976 p.m.
For over twenty-two years now I have been giving services — four services a week for quite a while; more recently just two — also an indeterminate number of classes and lectures, talks of various kinds and descriptions. Very few, of course, have had opportunity to hear all these, but quite a number have heard many of them. A wide variety of subjects have been dealt with, in a variety of ways. At least for those who have had opportunity to participate with me in what has taken form in expression in this way, I would anticipate that they would be closely with me in understanding. And yet, I keep discovering that certain ones who should know better don’t — it would seem consequent upon not really paying attention to what was offered. I sometimes feel as though it is necessary for me, perhaps, to recapitulate all that has been said before, prior to giving a service; and yet, if I had to do that, the service would last at least a month! Surely you don’t expect me to recapitulate everything, but I do expect you to be aware of what went before, to the extent, at least, that you’ve had opportunity to be aware.
It is said that we must move from the known to the unknown. I always undertake to make this approach even though I don’t undertake to recapitulate everything that has been offered throughout the last twenty-two years. From those who have been associated with me for a goodly proportion of those years I expect much. My expectations are not always fulfilled, that is true. There is something we need to see here, however, as we begin to share in a greater experience of the spiritual state, which is new to us. Regardless of what we may have known to date in this regard, it has been rather little. And it has been, to a large extent, a spiritual appendage to the material condition. It seems to take a real crisis point to cause those concerned to awaken to what is already present but over the line of which I have been speaking. Now, we can wait for this intensity of crisis to occur and then see what the result is. How many would still be around? Or we can be willing to acknowledge the material habits with which we have been associated and stop following out the lines of thought that those habits tend to engender in our experience, that there may be a willingness to awaken to the truth because we are willing to let this be the nature of our momentary expression, relative to our momentary experience. No matter what it is that comes up, our first concern is to handle it rightly and effectively in spiritual expression, in the character and quality of our true nature, the spirit of the living God. If anything in your circumstance, in your experience, can distract you from that, you will be distracted, inevitably so. Sometimes mention has been made of homework, in times past. We are coming now to the point where it is going to be revealed how much homework has been done.
The angel is coming forth collectively speaking, and therefore individually speaking. The flaming sword is in the angel’s hand and is being wielded in that coming forth. I have mentioned that this is something that is happening, whether anyone wants it to happen, likes it or doesn’t like it, or anything else. If it happens in relationship to us first, this is because we have indicated that we are offering ourselves to the creative cycle. And so we should be content that it do so. Now, when we begin to feel that coming forth, because of a certain discomfort, we can either stand still and see the salvation of the Lord or we can try to escape. As we have noted in times past, over and over again, there are many methods that human beings use to escape. The very endeavor to escape, whatever method may be used, requires that one move away from the flaming sword; therefore, in moving away, one is moving away from the means by which the purifying might occur. The purifying is beginning to happen, so that one feels uncomfortable; identifying oneself with the discomfort, the endeavor is then made to move away from what seems to be causing the discomfort. What is causing the discomfort is actually the flaming sword. If one goes away far enough one may cease to feel the burning edge of that sword quite so keenly, and that may seem to be more comfortable; but as the coming forth of the sword continues, it covers more and more of the earth and there are fewer and fewer places to which one may escape, if one is going somewhere physically. At the moment there is quite a bit of space around, but you will note that it is hotting up everywhere on the face of the earth, in various ways. The time is not too far distant when there will be no place to go. So the only thing to do is to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
This is what happened when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt and they came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh and his armies in hot pursuit. The instruction by Moses was, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,” see what the flaming sword does. In that case there was what has subsequently been described as a miracle. There is a distinction between what occurred then and what occurs now. The cleansing at that point was evidently by water; now it is by fire. But the instruction is just the same: “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Do you have sufficient nerve to do it? When the heat comes on and you are in a state of turmoil and utter confusion, terrified as the Israelites were, are you capable, in that crisis, of standing still and seeing the salvation of the Lord? Or, in such an experience, do you think of nothing else but getting away, of escaping? If you follow out the material compulsion, you lose the opportunity of letting the cleansing take place. And you lose it because you are fearful and ashamed, and you think you can’t face anything anymore, maybe other people, because you have a lot of wild imagination in that stressful state.
Obviously, if you come to such a condition, you need to pay attention to whoever the Moses is. There is always a Moses around who will speak the word, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” But a human being in that sort of an emotional state is inclined to be subject to the compulsion of his own earthly heredity, which has been accustomed to escaping on such occasions for twenty thousand years. So, the compulsion is strong, but there needs to be something stronger in you if you are to survive. And that something stronger is love for the Lord which causes you to heed the commandment of the Lord, through the lips of whoever, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Let the flaming sword move past you.
In moving past you it will consume that ill thing which is seeking to compel you to escape. And when it has moved past you, that particular aspect of the material state will have been burned away; it will have no more power to control you. But you can never experience that release without standing still. Yes, the angel is coming forth; the flaming sword is present and moving through all of us, with respect to all of us. We will find everything hotting up. I remind you in this hour that on every such occasion the word of the Lord is spoken on earth, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Be willing to let it happen. Don’t try to fight with Pharaoh. That’s fatal! Be not afraid, because you are willing to trust the Lord.
Long ago, when the Israelites had already come out of the land of Egypt, they had the opportunity of moving immediately into the promised land. Based upon their material condition, they refused to accept the opportunity and they were condemned to wander in the wilderness, in consequence, for forty years. The objective of that forty years was to allow the generation that came out of Egypt to die, because these were the ones who had rejected the opportunity of moving into the promised land when the opportunity was there. So the opportunity had to be provided for the subsequent generation. This meant that the previous one had to get out of the way, had to perish in the wilderness. What a very sad picture that was. The ones who should have known better didn’t behave on the basis of what they really knew. Is this not the tendency of human beings, to try to behave on the basis of what they don’t know? If we were concerned, always, to live on the basis of what we know, our knowing would increase. But how many times do you find yourselves trying to act on the basis of what you don’t know? If you try to do that, then you get desperate and afraid, because, after all, you don’t know and you are faced with a very fearful situation — the unknown. It’s terrifying, isn’t it? But what do you know? Sometimes those who have been associated with the Emissary ministry fail to realize how much they know, because they are always concerned about the things they think they don’t know: How about this? How about that? How about the other thing? — seeking assurance with respect to something that isn’t there. But the assurance is in what is there, what we do know.
“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” You know that. You know that’s the thing to do, don’t you? Wouldn’t you agree that you know, at this moment at least, that that’s the thing to do? Fear always relates to something you don’t know. Never become subject to what you don’t know; accept into your expression of living what you do know. I’m talking about the truth, the truth you know. And one aspect of that is, in a point of crisis: Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, regardless of what your emotions say, regardless of what your ideas and concepts may be as to the terrible state you would experience if you stood still. It is the only safe thing to do. No matter what the uproar may be, and we may feel emotional disturbances all around us, if we stand still we remember the instruction contained in a verse of the 91st Psalm: “Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked” — not with your heart, but just in observation. You see all this going on, you see the waves and the wind all around, “but it shall not come nigh thee” if you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Your heart belongs to the Lord; it doesn’t belong to the turmoil. If you refuse to let the turmoil take over your feelings you are safe. If you let the turmoil take over your feelings, then, like Peter when he was already walking on the water, you begin to sink: “Save me, Lord, save me.” Very fortunately He is a merciful Lord, and He does stretch out His hand on occasion and provide what is necessary so that the individual does not entirely perish at that point. But that sense of failure on Peter’s part stayed with him; he was very much aware of the fact of his own wavering, so that later, when he found himself in another crisis, pressure point, he denied his Lord.
We make a habit of these things until we face the issue. And the easiest moment to face it is always that moment that is here. So often human beings think that when something arises, a pressure point, they are not going to face this pressure point. Perhaps another later on will be more convenient; but they can’t do it now. You will find that whatever it is that comes to you first is the easiest thing. Anything that you put off will be harder, because there will be the thing that you missed before and then the next thing added to it. And so it goes — and it goes — and all too many eventually find there is such an overwhelming condition that they can’t handle it at all. Do your homework. Face the thing that is there, quick, before it slips past you. Don’t try to escape merely by turning a blind eye. You need the eye to see it for the heart to stay true to the Lord. Then in each little thing you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. That becomes a habit. Now, obviously there are greater pressure points to arise in the days to come; but if we have the experience of handling them rightly as we have moved along the way, we will have the assurance that we may do so no matter what may come in the future. And we don’t need to speculate. You’re not required to handle that imaginary thing, so why fuss with it? Handle the thing that is present in spiritual expression and you will find that what is natural to you in this regard will come forth in your experience.
We have considered the matter of the priesthood. The priesthood provides the capstone of the pyramid of man. Man as a whole may be symbolized by a pyramid. The capstone of a pyramid is a little pyramid. Everything that is in the pyramid is present, in essence, in the capstone. If we see the capstone as symbolizing the priesthood, then we may recognize that all that is true of man as a whole is true with respect to the priesthood. This is why the priesthood can represent man to God and also God to man. This is the position of the priesthood. The priesthood provides the means of government insofar as man is concerned, and man provides the means of government insofar as his total field of responsibility is concerned. If we remember the Israelites of old — after they came out of Egypt and the tabernacle had been built, when they camped, the tabernacle was at the center of the encampment, with the Levites, who were the priesthood, camped round about it. Round about the Levites were the twelve tribes encamped. Here we have a rather broad indication of the requirements insofar as man is concerned. Remembering that man is spiritual, the Israelites at that time represented man. According to the story, they didn’t do too good a job of representing man, who is spiritual — they tended to represent material man all too much, which wasn’t what was required of them. However, we can see the principle.
There was a tabernacle, representing the Lord; there was the priesthood, representing the spiritual expression level of man; and there was the encampment of the twelve tribes, representing the mental and physical levels of man. All that was present in the whole pyramid of representation by the Israelites was in essence in the capstone, symbolizing the priesthood. There were those at the capstone of the capstone, who had very specific responsibility with respect to the priestly requirements of serving in the holy place of the tabernacle — this capstone of the capstone was the spiritual expression level of the priesthood. But then there were those in the base of the capstone, that represented the mental and physical levels of the priesthood. It was not a though all the priesthood should be in the capstone of the capstone. There has to be representation at all levels of the capstone insofar as man as a whole is concerned.
What is here at Sunrise Ranch relates very specifically to this capstone of the priesthood. It’s not altogether a geographical thing — there are those who are of the priesthood at 100 Mile House, and many others in the field. In fact, all of those who are beginning to play a part in what is unfolding in our collective experience compose the priesthood at the present time. But in the priesthood there are these various levels. Everybody is not at the same level; everybody is not supposed to be at the same level. In the encampment of the tribe of Levi there were those in the encampment there, Levites, who necessarily cooked the meals, did the laundry, and cared for all the various things that were required insofar as the encampment of the tribe of Levi was concerned; doing very much the same thing as was being done by many more people in the larger encampment of the twelve tribes.
We need to see this with respect to our own experience, because the coming forth of the angel relates first to the priesthood. They are rightly at the apex, and what is coming forth comes down from God out of heaven into the earth first through the priesthood, that there may be a purification of the priesthood — of the capstone of the total pyramid. And the purification occurs all through the various levels of that capstone. There are those who find themselves taking care of the mundane tasks here, for instance, and they may begin to think to themselves, “Well, I’m not part of the capstone because I’m down here serving in this fashion, therefore it really doesn’t matter so much how I behave. It’s not so important that I handle these things in spiritual expression, because, after all, there is the capstone of the capstone up there and they are doing what is required in that exalted place, and I’m just down here.” Well, we can look at this with respect to the Unit here, or we can look at it from a broader perspective. The same sort of thing is known by everyone. There are various levels, but every level in the priesthood, where the first fruits are, must allow spiritual expression which is fitting at the particular level where the individual is.
This begins to emphasize the fact that there are these levels, and each individual is inclined to reveal the level at which he may effectively function. Some people feel that it is incumbent upon them to try to keep scrambling up to some exalted level that they think they see, when they do not have the capacity in actual fact to function at that level, because it is not required of them. There is a need for people to be content at the level which is the proper and fitting level of their own experience. We all have our natural level in fact, and we are happy at that natural level. The only incentive there is is the experience that is known when spiritual expression is offered in the circumstance at the level where we belong. This is not to say that there may not be a rising up to a higher level in season. But here is a material viewpoint that needs to pass away, that somehow or other, if one is higher in the pyramid, or in the capstone of the pyramid, that that is better, that somehow one will be better. The point is that man is perfect when he is man, and he is man when he has filled out all the levels that are in the pyramid. It would be ridiculous to suppose that all human beings could be at the apex of the pyramid — there wouldn’t be any pyramid then. And it is the pyramid that is perfect. Therefore, as there are those who are allowing this pyramid to be, there is the experience of perfection, no matter at what level the individual may find his natural expression. I don’t think any of us are aspiring to take the place of our Lord and King. Why would we? He’s doing His job perfectly. Let us do our job perfectly, wherever we may happen to be. But it does require, in every instance, that, whatever the level of our expression may be, it should be perfect at that level. If we aspire to some level that is not natural to us, our expression will not be perfect; it won’t belong.
We are part of one whole and we are content to allow that whole to appear in whatever way is fitting. So there are many levels of living, and we naturally find our own level when we are not trying to be something that we are not. Accepting the quality and nature of our own individually unique expression, we discover where we belong. We are quite content to be where we belong. All this striving, ambitious endeavor on the part of human beings is a quality of the material state which must pass away. It is such a delight to be oneself! When you are yourself, no one can take your place. There are no substitutes for you, in reality.
So we have shared something of a vision with respect to the natural experience which comes in the spiritual state of man. At the moment this relates more specifically to the priesthood, the capstone of the pyramid. I have spoken about these things this evening. You’ve all shared in what has been expressed, I trust not trying to grasp anything but just letting it flow. If you have, it is present with you and will not need any later recapitulation. I suspect however, that you have not seen or understood everything that has been offered. And so there will be opportunity for recapitulation, because every service is videoed, transcribed, and released for everyone in various ways — that those who choose to pay attention may never indicate that the provision has not been adequately made. It is all there, always.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
from
The True Stature of Man
Martin Cecil January 14, 1974 a.m.
Human experience is based in what we have described as self-centeredness — the projection of human beings to first place, as though there was nothing more important in the universe than human beings. Obviously the universe is not subservient to human beings. The way people are on earth at the present time they are very small fry when we consider the total picture, scarcely discernible at all and carrying just about as much significance. Yet it has been said that man was originally made in the image and likeness of God. This should give him considerable stature, but in his self-centeredness he has lost his connection with God and consequently has lost his true stature.
There is a description in the Book of Genesis as to what happened to the serpent that was in the tree in the garden. He landed up on his belly in the dust, and his diet was dust too. Now the serpent relates to the central nervous system in man, by which he finds his contact with the external world around him. In consequence of that contact he forms his various concepts with respect to that world. He generates a crust of consciousness. We are considering this from the standpoint of what has been occurring since self-centeredness set in. Man's consciousness has been hooked to externals and goes upon its belly in the dust, eating dust. Man's awareness of his environment and of himself is of a very lowly nature. All that man really knows about is what is on the surface, related to the layer of dust. He does indeed, in his present consciousness, go upon his belly in the dust, and this is what he eats too, both literally and metaphorically.
Man, made in the image and likeness of God, should rightly have considerable stature. He has been keenly aware of his lack of stature and has felt ashamed of it, but has thus far been unwilling to relinquish the things which keep him in that lowly state. He may, standing in the dust, look outward beyond himself into the universe, but he has to use the serpent to do it, so he sees everything through the serpent's eyes, or through the worm's-eye view. He stands in the dust and looks to the larger environment around him, seeing everything through those self-centered eyes; and he may also look in the opposite direction, inward to the very small, and he sees things there likewise. On the basis of this he develops what he calls his physical sciences, and the crust forms within the scope of this thin layer of dust. At the same time, he may indulge himself in the development of various philosophies. He moves into a metaphysical realm, something that is beyond the immediate experience of the dust. But this realm doesn't go very far either. It is comparable to the atmosphere around the earth — a very thin skin too. So the atmosphere and the dust are both relatively nothing, compared on the one hand to the body of the earth, on the other hand to the body of space. Yet it is within this range that human beings exist. The stature of man has been entirely lost.
If in our meditations we undertake to look beyond the worm's-eye view there are those who react in fear. To come out of the state of the worm looks as though it would cause a person to lose any sense of security which he has, which probably isn't much anyway. But to lose that little bit is unthinkable to many, so there tends to be a more or less violent reaction on the part of the majority of human beings, based in not wanting to see the truth, and being desperately afraid of seeing the truth. The vast majority of human beings won't even look in the right direction. True honesty, of course, compels a person to look. This being so, there is much evidence of very little honesty. Those who do look, in spite of the general tendency which does not want to look, develop their philosophies on a basis which will allow them to maintain their sense of security, and consequently they only produce theories which permit the maintenance of self-centeredness.
Obviously, if human beings are ever to be restored to the state of man they must come out of this earthworm state. The necessity, then, is that something more be seen than is possible to the consciousness of the earthworm. If, for instance, I begin to point to a larger sphere of understanding, there are those who, looking at it, claim that I am offering a new system of concepts; and there are others who look at what it is that I offer and develop a new system of concepts. In either case the real necessity of what needs to be experienced is overlooked. It certainly is not a matter of either seeming to accept a new system of concepts from me — I have no intention of offering one — or of developing a system of concepts from what I say (which is the only way, actually, that a system of concepts can be produced, because it is not what I offer). There must, however, be an introduction to an awareness of the real stature of man. If everything that is offered in this regard is translated, interpreted, on the basis of the worm's-eye view, then it merely becomes another philosophy, and human philosophies are no good — they're worthless.
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, to have a stature which would be of God. The vast difference between present human experience and that is incomprehensible to human beings. It's incomprehensible to the self-centered state of consciousness. However, if finally there is a certain willingness on the part of some to come out of that limited state and to find again the true stature of man, then there is a discernment of the real quality of that stature; but we cannot comprehend the real quality of that stature if we insist and persist on going upon our bellies in the dust. We must share a movement which allows us to come out of the realm of concept. The actual experience that is needed transcends the worm experience, and if the door begins to be opened for the greater experience of the true stature of man, how very reluctant most people are to move through that door.
Let us for a moment consider something, do a little thinking without interpreting what begins to emerge in consciousness from the standpoint of the worm's view. So let us consider, and in this consideration I am trusting you not to form a system of concepts, a metaphysical system of some kind, a new philosophy. We have to use words which have certain meanings in human consciousness. You have undergone a certain amount of change in this regard so that you have seen different meanings; but those different meanings that you see are now your present concepts, so do not restrict what is to unfold in your concepts of meaning. Allow yourselves to move with the spirit of what is occurring, because we are moving, in fact, to the state of man — who became man, when he was originally created, because the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils. The breath of life indicates spirit. His state of being man is absolutely dependent upon his experience of spirit, not upon his mental concepts. Man's true experience relates to spirit. He is not man until that is dominant in his experience. You can examine your own daily experience and recognize what is now dominant. Man has tremendous stature when he is man, breathing the breath of life.
We may look at the setting in which man finds himself on the surface of this planet. Presently that setting is simply a thin layer of dust and a thin layer of atmosphere. But there would be no possibility even of that if it were not for the fact of the planet itself, what we call the earth, this rock moving in space. So we have one level here, the earthly level, about which, in the self-centered condition, man merely knows a little something of this skin of dust and atmosphere. Human beings imagine that they know so much when what they know is scarcely discernible even in this first level of consideration where man rightly has responsibility. This relates to the total planet and actually includes another body that is very closely related to this planet — the moon. Here we have the first level, the physical level, of being as it relates to man.
But this earth, with its moon, is not all alone in space. It has an immediate relationship to a number of other planets. Here we have another level of being: the earthly level first of all, and then what we might call the planetary level, because the earth is part of a family of planets. This family of planets is interrelated and these interrelationships involve movement in a pattern of rhythm. Now this immediate contact with the rhythmic movement which characterizes all things, through this system of planets, correlates with the mental level of consciousness in man. We have the earthly level, and the physical nature of man. The planetary level correlates with the mental nature of man. His mental nature, then is getting a little larger than is the case with the worm!
And insofar as this planetary system is concerned, it does not exist all on its own. It has a relationship to what we call the sun. Now the sun is not merely that fiery orb that is observable when the sky is clear in the daytime. That is the core of what the sun actually is, but there is far more to the sun than this core. There is what has been described as the solar magnetosphere. What the sun is extends through the planetary system and beyond. In other words, the planets are contained in the sun, even as the earth is contained in the planetary system.
So we have three levels here: the earthly level correlating with the physical nature of man, the planetary level correlating with the mental nature of man, and the solar level correlating with the spiritual expression nature of man. Here is a portrayal of what is properly the true nature of man in the external sense, in the manifest sense; and this is only part of man, isn't it? Man is more than that because of the breath of life. We may begin to see that beyond the solar system are other relationships, because the solar system does not exist just for itself. It is part of what is called the galaxy. But when we get beyond the solar system we get beyond the level of man in the external sense. We begin to find the correlation of man in the external sense with God in the internal sense.
Man is made in the image and likeness of God, and God is certainly not limited to this solar system, so we may go beyond the solar system and find the galaxy, one level beyond the solar system. We may go beyond that and find another level which relates to the system of galaxies. And we may go beyond the level of the system of galaxies to what is composed by those systems, the total universe. Here we have another three — internal levels, related to the internal nature of man, which is rightly the nature of God. Man, internally and externally, is made in the image and likeness of God. What vast stature is this! Just look at it, without forming concepts about it, and then look at the world — then look at human beings in their present state.
I have emphasized over and over again the vast changes that need to come in consciousness. Perhaps this outline will help you to understand how vast those changes really are, because we are not really worms burrowing around in the dust, and that is all there is to us. If we try to maintain that state, no wonder we feel futile and frustrated. But if we feel that way it is because we ourselves have maintained that state. Of course, the worm looks around and accuses other worms of keeping him bound in this state, but that's not true at all. It has no basis in truth whatsoever. No one can keep anyone else in the wormy state. If we begin to see the vastness of what man really is, perhaps we may have a better comprehension of the nature of the irresistible force and what it is that is actually working and capable of restoring man. It isn't done by the efforts of the worms — it is done by the power of God, by this vast, almighty reality which encompasses the universe. Man is equipped to have a direct relationship to that. What a lowly state he has brought himself to; what a sad, insignificant condition, when the mightiness of what man really is is so tremendous.
Let us begin to sense once again the true nature of man and how it is related to the reality of God, and how in that relationship he finds himself as an essential element in the total operation of the universe. Clearly, for a person in the worm state of consciousness to develop some sort of a big head, a conceited view of himself as being so vastly important, is ridiculous. He isn't, in that state. He cannot comprehend the real nature of his importance until that state begins to be transcended because he is restored in his triune nature into the pattern, the design, of being. Then his mental processes correlate with the rhythms of the planetary state, the planetary level, Mazzaroth; and his spiritual expression with the solar level; and all based in his physical correlation not merely with the surface dust of the ground and the little area of atmosphere around the planet but with the earth itself and the total earth system. Then once again man begins to find himself with his true stature, made in the image and likeness of God.
Rising up out of the cloudy state of human consciousness we may find ourselves restored to a pattern of right relationship with God, so that our triune nature may be rightly used in extending the dominion of God into the total realm of man's true responsibility. “Behold, I make all things new.” Yes, indeed!
© Emissaries of Divine Light
I Stir Up Your Pure Minds
Uranda July 23, 1946
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” That should mean more to you today than it ever has in the past. Unless, as Members of the One Christ Body, we are obedient to that Word, it will be as nothing. And that has to be done in really living the Christ Life — not just seething inside with resentment; not just by saying, “I am looking for good things to think about.” But isn't that just about as sensible as the human being is sometimes? It has to be real. Remember, folks, I always know the difference between the real and the counterfeit, whether I make the test right in front of you and show it up or not. And remember that I am not interested in anything that is counterfeit — it does not impress me; it does not help; it is utterly valueless; and, sooner or later, I will see that it is tossed out into the garbage.
There is just one type of thing that can be used, and that is the genuine article; unless it is genuine, it cannot be used very well, and whatever is counterfeit has to be removed. We shall remove it ever so gently, and be sure that it is filled with the Real, if you will let me perform the operation the way I want to do it, but if you insist on trying to work it out according to some concept of yours, you are liable to find on one bright day that with one clean sweep the Sword is likely to lay it right apart, and you can take it or leave it. Unless it is genuine, it is absolutely no good at any time. I tolerate some counterfeit, so that we may not be under the necessity of making spectacles of things, so that we can let these things change gradually and as painlessly as possible, but sooner or later that Sword will operate if you insist on trying to do it your way, and that is that.
We remember that comment in one of the letters which I read this morning — the realization that in my function I have drawn the lovely out of each one of you; everything that is fine and real in you I have been drawing out as rapidly as I could, so that it might be on top. But when there is something unreal inside, even though you may try to hide it from me, I may let you think you are getting by with it a little while, but you will learn, sooner or later, that when I look I am not looking with human vision that can be easily deluded. I think you know that already. I have proven it too many times. That does not mean that I am going to arbitrarily reach inside of your heart and yank this or that out. No, I have consistently worked to draw from within you that which is lovely, fine, true, real and noble, that it may manifest effectively; but in that process you find that, willingly or unwillingly, as long as you stay within the range of my responsibility and authority, sooner or later I insist that the unlovely corners be opened up and that you take a look at them. You may think that you have something tucked away so far and so deep that I shall not know that it is there, or that I cannot find it. A few of you could testify that there is no such place to be found.
I have accepted this One Christ Body, in which I have the fullest of love, faith and trust, on the level of its function. I have unified with it as its Head, and I do not think that my love or my faith could be made manifest any more than it has been. But that One Body has a lot of growing to do, and those Members who are in it will have to be, sooner or later, fully purified. Any walls that remain will have to be broken down; anything hidden in the depths will have to be brought to the light. It can be done in the light between you and me before God, without the others looking on, if you will let it be so — but if you do not, one bright day I will rip it off where everybody can take a look at it, and I don't mean maybe.
I cannot make you do anything, and I am not interested in making you do anything. The only thing that is any good in this One Christ Body is Love Response, and what you do in Love Response of your own volition, because you want to do that more than anything else in the world. Anything that you do under a feeling of compulsion, or because you think I require it, is counterfeit. Many times I have seemed to accept it for the time, because I wanted to give you every opportunity to grow, but anything that is counterfeit is utterly no good. Only what you do that is right for the pure joy of doing right, without compulsion, because it is what you want to do more than anything else in the world — only that done in Love Response is any good.
There is one sure thing — remember this. This Body of which I am a Member is made up of many Members. I will not let any Member jeopardize the whole. Our responsibility is not just for the Members of this Body, but for the world body of Responding Ones, and as the One Christ Body — while there is a training period, and while I deal with every matter with all the Love that I can, and you know it — there is that which requires that we follow the groove, that we hew to the line, that we let the work be performed according to the Plan — the Blueprint, if you please — and it will be done that way by this Body as long as I am its Head. You know that, but with respect to the necessities of outworking in this Body, it is necessary that I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, so that you function in that realization. “Behold, I make all things new” — inside and out, up and down and all around, every whit whole.
These are considerations with respect to the work to which we are called, and things with respect to our function in the doing of that work. It is the greatest work on earth. It is the most important thing in all the world. Thousands and millions of lives depend on it. I have not seen any sign that anyone else was too seriously considering doing the job. To depend on someone else, in my estimation, would be the sheerest folly. I am not taking the attitude that there are not any other people in the world who could do the work if they would. Do you see what I mean? We are not the only good people in the world, not by a long shot. I suspect that, if we looked around, we might find a group of people who might be called even better, who never heard of the Third Sacred School. We do not have any cause for self-righteousness, nor human pride — and pride goeth before a fall. We do not like falls. We had one thousands of years ago, a pretty big tumble; and there have been several since; there have been so many of them that it seems to me that we ought somehow to stop making them. The world is cluttered up with them; the world needs something else; the world needs something that it has not got. So, instead of making another fall, we would rather have that open Gateway that lets Heaven come down from God into the earth, that all things may truly for all people be made new.
“And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Have you heard that Voice? The Tabernacle of God is the One Christ Body on earth, in which He dwells, lives, moves and has His Being, and functions to the degree that we let it be purified and made every whit whole. That is the description in Revelation 21:3 of the manifestation of the One Christ Body on earth.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
from
The Magic of Thankfulness
Martin Cecil September 30, 1979
It is evident that the universe is operational. Things are the way they are in the universe. This little planet upon which we dwell is a part of that greater operational unit. There is a way by which the universe operates. The operation of the universe springs from the fact of that reality indicated by the use of the word God. We need to be very careful that we do not imagine we understand what we are talking about when we use the word God. We may have a consciousness of the fact of a reality which goes beyond anything that we are capable of observing in the dimensional sense. We are considering an undimensional state when we use the word God. Dimensionlessness is virtually meaningless to the human intellect. Dimensions of some sort are necessary to the experience of what human beings know mentally speaking. If there is something beyond the dimensional world the human mind doesn't know anything about it and, incidentally, can't know anything about it. However there may be a recognition of the necessity of something beyond the dimensional world if the dimensional world is to exist. What that is may be defined by using the word God.
We have recognized, in some measure, that there must be some sort of vibrational substance which allows the connection to be made between the operational universe and what is spoken of as God. Even from the mental standpoint this has been recognized as a requisite. For instance, electromagnetic radiation coming from the sun is thought of, sometimes, in terms of waves. If there are waves there must be a medium through which they can be transmitted. There are waves in the ocean; there couldn't be waves in the ocean if it wasn't for the water. There are sound waves in the air; but there couldn't be sound waves, we couldn't hear sound, if it wasn't for the air. By the same token, whatever it is that proceeds from God needs a medium of transmission — at least this is the way it looks to the human mind. The human mind thinks in terms of form, in symbols. It doesn't really ever see the reality. It may see what symbolizes the reality.
So there is whatever it is that comes from God. We call it the spirit of God — which is essential to the operational fact of the universe. We can think of the spirit of God, I suppose, in terms of waves. There is the necessity then for a medium for the transmission of those waves. Seeing that the universe is operational, that medium must already be in place. We can therefore, using our imagination, recognize that there is the necessity of a substantial medium of some kind, capable of transmitting spiritual waves, capable of operating the universe, capable of producing all that is present in the universe. We have some sort of awareness that things don't just happen; there is always a reason of some kind. Very often the human mind doesn't understand or comprehend the reason. When it doesn't understand or comprehend, it is inclined to deny the existence of whatever it is that it doesn't understand or comprehend; but of course that is foolishness. It would be foolishness to suppose that human minds are capable of grasping the universe. After all, the human mind is relatively just a thimble; and yet it thinks of itself in rather grandiose terms.
However, we recognize the necessity of spiritual substance capable of accommodating spirit, substance through which spirit can move with freedom — in an uninhibited manner. This substance then is present in the universe. It fills all space; but it also fills the space that is occupied by what we call physical substance. It is of such a high intensity, necessarily so, that it is capable of permeating everything. This spiritual substance is already present in the universe. The universe is operational; it's going along quite all right. Things are not quite so happy, quite so under control, quite so as they should be, here on earth within the range of human influence. This would seem to indicate that insofar as human function is concerned human beings have very little within the scope of their own experience of this intense spiritual substance, very little to connect them up with what is present universally speaking.
We can see from this standpoint that human beings are in a state of isolation. They have isolated themselves. This was described rather accurately as being put out of the garden — spoken of in religious circles sometimes as the fall of man, man putting himself out of the garden, disconnecting himself from this universal spiritual substance and endeavoring to operate without it. The result is a multiplying mess which will get messier and messier the longer that human beings continue to try to operate without the substance. We have seen the necessity of generating spiritual substance, generating it at all levels so that it may reach to this highest or most intense level of spiritual substance, thereby connecting us up with the immense mass of spiritual substance that fills the whole universe. There is no shortage of that substance insofar as the universe is concerned. There is a shortage of it insofar as human experience is concerned, and that shortage becomes fatal in due course.
In order to be in position to generate the required substance, we have recognized that there is a need for certain attitudes to be taken. Many have seen this in theory but been a little resistant to the idea of assuming the attitudes that are required. But wouldn't it be more sensible to undertake to experience what is necessary — because one chooses to do it — in order to generate the substance which permits the connection to be made with what is already present throughout the whole universe? Let us come out of the state of isolation. It has been wise that man should be in isolation, I think, because it's important that he shouldn't infect the rest of the universe. So, as it was put, he was cast out of the garden. Fundamentally, he merely ejected himself, and in doing so he dissipated the substance which would otherwise have kept him in the garden, connected up with the rest of the universe, doing what is required in the universal sense as a part of the whole. But in isolation all that he has done has been virtually meaningless. Our concern now is to allow the generation of the required substance which would permit the connection to be made with the universal substance so that what is true of the spirit of God may emerge within the experience of man — not only within the experience of the whole universe but including man too, which it doesn't now.
So here we are, concerned to accept those attitudes which make possible the generation of this substance in our own momentary living. This is a living experience, not a dying experience. We have to live to generate the substance. So there is the matter of this generation and the attitudes required — which we have considered rather thoroughly and in various ways. But there is one very important attitude which is frequently overlooked in the fact of experience. To know about it is one thing but to do it is another thing — to let it happen. And it is a very simple attitude. It has been repeated quite frequently and it is one of the first matters that is considered when anyone begins to draw close to what is offered through this ministry. Do you know what it is? I'm sure you do. Be thankful.
Be thankful
Thanksgiving provides the essential means by which substance is generated and the connection is made with the intense medium which permeates the whole universe. It even permeates human beings — if it permeates the whole universe it's here — but it is unknown as long as a person remains unthankful.
How thankful are you? Let's not fool ourselves. Let's not be dishonest about it. Let's face the fact of the matter. We've often spoken of complaint and criticism and all this sort of stuff, which obviously is the reverse of thankfulness. Let's look at thankfulness and forget about the criticism and all the rest, and be thankful. Why not? What are we going to do about it? Are we going to be very thankful that we are immediately in position to generate what is required and be connected up? There's nothing to stop anyone — and the principal requirement is this matter of thankfulness. Pause a minute and think about it. Perhaps you can be thankful now. It's beautiful to be together, isn't it, sharing these wonderful evidences of the movement of the spirit of God. Beautiful! But how about when you get out of here? What's going to happen then? Be thankful that we are in position in our living, through thankfulness, to generate the substance that connects us with the universal medium of spirit. And the initial spirit is love — and the substance of love.
Love emerges when there is a substance through which it can emerge. What human beings think of as love, and call love, is far from the experience of the reality of love, because human beings simply don't have the substance for it. Here is something beyond the comprehension of human beings who are subject to the spirit of unthankfulness — who find so many things to complain about. Be thankful for the spirit of God and the fact that in that thankfulness you can begin to generate the substance which has been missing. All the things that are voids in human experience are simply the absence of the spirit of God. But the spirit of God is not absent actually; it is merely absent from the experience of the human being because there has been no substance to accommodate it. Without that substance the spirit of God is just imagination, but when the substance is there, the waves are there, it begins to come through and there begins to be the experience therefore of what it is that should be finding expression in the moment. And what should be finding expression in the moment is never complaint! It is always characterized by thankfulness. Think about it. Do any of us really belong on earth? We only belong on earth if we are associated with this substance; and if we're not thankful, if we're complaining and criticizing and judging all around, why are we on earth? We don't belong. That's why we've been in isolation. That's why the whole human race has been in isolation.
We can't exist at all without the rest of the universe. We certainly couldn't exist, most obviously so, without this planet; and this planet couldn't exist if it weren't a part of the solar system. It wouldn't be very habitable, would it, if it were just floating around out there in space. But we recognize that it is a beautiful planet; it has been placed in exactly the right position — relative to the sun and relative to the other planets — so that everything is there for what should occur, except human beings, except the part that human beings should be playing in the whole picture.
So, the generation of substance. It is not as though this is a new idea, is it? Thankfulness. I think it was mentioned a time or two before! And it was mentioned way, way back. Let me read something here: “O Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” How often do you say so? How often do you come out and say, “Praise the Lord. Thank God this is the way it is”? Wouldn't it be sensible to do that? Finally we'd begin to generate some spiritual substance and get connected up. Or isn't that worth doing? Let us let it happen because we are willing to let it happen; we're not constantly arguing ourselves out of it. There is this deliberate matter of arguing ourselves out of thankfulness because we have so many reasons as to why we shouldn't be thankful; and we're going to put them on the table so that everybody can see why we shouldn't be thankful. Stupid, isn't it? And yet it's a human habit. Why not let the habit go? You do it by being thankful, by filling your experience with thankfulness and then there isn't room for anything else. But it is something that has to be deliberately done. This is taking spiritual responsibility.
Why not begin to share the outlook, the vision, the viewpoint, of God through His spirit which is emerging in the substance in our own experience? Then we see the way things actually are and we're no longer ground into the dust. We begin to have some stature. We begin to stand up. We have recognized that there must be very many levels of this spiritual substance, the supreme one permeating everything else. In order to provide some sort of picture, mention has been made of seven levels in this regard. They're not seven distinct levels — there's a whole range of vibratory substance. But human beings have had just a little bit right down at the bottom, and they're like worms of the dust crawling around on their bellies. This is what the serpent does; and his meat is dust, just physical things; everything has to be proven from the physical standpoint. You can't prove much from that standpoint because it is the very least there is.
The vibratory levels are vast. Obviously the highest vibratory level of substance, if it actually permeates the whole universe, is somewhat vast. And yet as human beings we wriggle around in the dust. Man was created to have stature, in the image and likeness of God, with all these vibratory levels present so that what is true of God, undimensionally speaking, may be revealed dimensionally speaking. But it requires the whole range of substance to do it. And we'll never allow the generation of the higher levels of vibratory substance without thankfulness. It can't be done. Couldn't we just stop the nonsense and decide to be thankful? — so that when something comes up that we would ordinarily object to we simply give thanks, actually do it and don't fiddle around with the thing. Somehow this vicious circle needs to be broken.
“O Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good:
for his mercy endureth for ever.”
We still have the opportunity! “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” — if you are beginning to be redeemed you can say so; that is, give thanks — “whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” We might read much more in this Psalm emphasizing this matter of thankfulness: “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word” — His spirit — “and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
If we recognize this vast sea of spiritual substance which is capable of accommodating the reality of love, the reality of God, then there also is the essence of everything, the operational design of everything, the power of operation for everything. Nowadays people are all concerned about matters of energy: “We're running out of energy; isn't it awful!” Are we? Probably — we fail to be thankful. If we see energy as relating to this universal substance, the substance is not the energy. The spirit which is accommodated by the substance is the energy. And is there any lack? None whatsoever! The lack is that human beings are disconnected from energy and all they see is a little closed circuit around them; and some of that is running out; it's all being dissipated. But there is an unlimited source of energy once human beings have been restored to the state of man, in other words connected up with this universal spiritual substance in which the power of spirit is present for right use. It's not available to human beings to use in their self-centered ways; very little of it is, just the little bit that goes around and around where human beings are. But this is an unlimited source.
There are those who have, from time to time, thought about perpetual motion machines, where you can extract energy from somewhere and the energy is more than is required to operate the machine which extracts the energy. If you can do that you always have an increasing amount of energy available. There's something true about this. We have awareness of a perpetual motion machine. The universe is a perpetual motion machine; but the idea of a perpetual motion machine which human beings can invent to use for their own purposes is something that cannot happen. It may happen just a little bit, but it gets messed up. There have been some forms of machine that have been invented that have had some properties in this regard, but for one reason or another they never came to anything, simply because they can't as long as human beings are the way they are, without themselves having any substance of connection with that substance in which the energy is. On one occasion, I understand, there was a fellow invented a perpetual motion machine of a sort but it would only operate when he was present. Well that's right! That's the way it works. That's why man is necessary — so that the power that is required to achieve the creative purposes of God may be allowed to appear. And there is no shortage of that! There's only a shortage of energy for human nature self-centered purposes, that's all. And of course it looks such a terrible thing; now everything is going to grind to a halt. I doubt if it actually will, but things may get difficult, because human beings insist that any energy they can develop should be used for their own purposes. As long as that is so it's a leak; it just runs away.
Our concern is to make possible within the body and consciousness of mankind a connection with this universal substance, therefore with the creative power, for the achievement of the purposes of God — the creative purposes of the universe, not just of this little planet. But it is related to the whole universe, and as there are those who begin to come into position, having generated this substance, to let this energy emerge, this power find expression, then the way it emerges is for the purposes of God and no longer for human purposes. It's not fed into human purposes. You lose it that way. It vanishes.
The fact of unlimited power only becomes known when that power begins to move in the creative design of God. Then there's no lack. But who is in position, now, to let it so move? Are we, do you think? Are we, if we're still complaining about this and that and the other thing and not giving thanks? I'm not talking just about words. It helps to say so because it reminds a person that this is the way he should be experiencing it. If you say, “Praise the Lord,” then you begin to think about it and there may be a willingness to let it be experienced. However it is the experience that is important, not just the words. The words may help the experience. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,” instead of mouthing the arguments which maintain the spirit of unthankfulness — and human beings waste immense amounts of energy doing this. Anyone can be thankful in any situation if they put themselves to it, but they have to put themselves to it. And that is our responsibility, that we may participate in this realm of creative action, so that the power of God may begin to emerge with increased effectiveness for the purposes of God. The purposes of God, we're not going to judge. If we start judging them we'll start complaining about them.
So all that is done is done for the glory of God, for the fulfilment of divine purposes, and we do not presume to know how that fulfilment is going to come to pass. Let it come the way it's going to come. And give thanks for it, because everything that is emerging emerges from this one source in any case and it emerges through whatever the state of consciousness may be insofar as human experience is concerned. Let's let that state of consciousness be clear then. Let's let it be what it should be so that the emergence may be fitting, and may create and accomplish whatever it is it should create and accomplish. We let it move in its own natural cycles, willing that it should be to the glory of God and not for our benefit, not to please us, not to make us comfortable and happy. That's not the point at all. The point is to let the restoration of man take place; and whatever is required to do that, let it be done. Is there anyone on the face of the earth whose human mind can tell them how that's going to be done? Certainly not! Let's just let it happen. And we let it happen because we have decided, finally, that we are going to be thankful — just that one thing.
I praise the Lord, now, that we may be thankful now.
I see a few happy faces here and there, thankful faces, but I also see some glum ones. Who is going actually to do it? Are we going to wait till next week — we'll do it next week! Do you think so? I don't. We can only do it now. We can't do it next week. So it is thankfulness now. Praise the Lord!
© Emissaries of Divine Light
