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Thou Shalt Bear True Witness
Martin Cecil November 6, 1977
What a rich blessing it is to be together on these occasions in our Chapel that we may share the increased expression of the Word of God to fulfil the purposes of God. We would leave behind the purposes of human nature and offer the capacity of our earthly consciousness to be filled with the state of heavenly consciousness. If this is to be so, earthly consciousness must have space to contain heavenly consciousness. The clutter that has been present in the earthly state of consciousness is to be entirely relinquished so that there may be room in the house, room in the inn, for the heavenly state of consciousness. That state of consciousness is heavenly because of the Word, Shekinah, the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells. The earthly state of consciousness becomes the heavenly state of consciousness when it is open to receive that state and there is room to receive it. Then Shekinah, the Word of God, can be born into expression on earth.
You will recall some words imputed to the Master toward the conclusion of His ministry, when He said: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” I think the usual view with respect to that statement is that if He had gone ahead and said these things the disciples couldn't have stood it; it would have been too much for them. Perhaps this may be one way of looking at it but we may also see that it wasn't the season for birth. Gestation was still occurring; it wasn't the season for birth. The Word of God which needed to be spoken, to be brought forth, could only be brought forth in its own seasons. The earthly capacity of consciousness is the womb for this bringing forth, that the Word of God that needs to find expression in the moment may do so in its seasons.
Being brought forth into expression on earth, by reason of the earthly capacity of consciousness, this birth occurs because there is something to be born. That something to be born must be present in the earthly capacity of consciousness. When the earthly capacity of consciousness is filled with the heavenly state of consciousness Shekinah is present—the Word is present to be born into expression in its own seasons. Here we see again the nature of the creative process. What moves moves according to the design of things and there are very definite seasons for that movement. We have seen these seasons as related to the Four Forces for instance, and their sequence of dominance. We have recognized the seasons from the standpoint of the creative spiral: “Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?”—bringing forth. We are to bear the Word of God.
Obviously if we are to be successful in bringing forth the Word of God we need to be able to stand it. If we see this in terms of childbirth we may understand easily that there is need for training for this athletic event. If there is resistance to the processes of childbirth it becomes very uncomfortable indeed. Resistance brings discomfort—we have noted this in relationship to every aspect of living. There is something to be brought forth, namely the Word of God. If the capacity of earthly consciousness is being used for other things then the creative cycles which are on the move anyway are going to bring a certain amount of discomfort. If one is not moving with what is moving, but is moving in some contrary way, that is resistance and it brings discomfort. The coming of the Comforter is the experience when there is movement with the processes of bringing forth the Word of God. That becomes a creative experience. It may involve a certain amount of stress but it is a delightful experience.
The words are used in the Book of Revelation with respect to the woman who was with child and “pained to be delivered.” The word pained as it is translated is perhaps a mistranslation. Because women have suffered a very great deal in childbirth the first word that would spring to mind in this regard would be this: “Pained to be delivered.” But here it is simply being indicated that the season for deliverance had arrived and something was to be brought forth. In the bringing-forth process there is always some stress. There is nothing wrong with stress. It only becomes a painful experience if the stress of bringing forth is resisted.
We are talking specifically here of the bringing forth of the Word of God. The Word of God is not merely an individual thing. We may see it quite easily in relationship to what is brought forth through the body which we properly compose. It is what the body brings forth that carries the importance. Of course the body cannot bring forth unless there are those composing it who cooperate in the process. If some who should be composing this body are resisting the bringing forth, then not only those who are resisting suffer the consequences but everybody else too, because it is one body.
As we begin to reawaken to the experience of the heavenly state of consciousness we are awakening also to the Word of God. The Word, Shekinah, is the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells. If the Word is present, if Shekinah is present, the reason for this is also present. Insofar as our collective body is concerned, the One Who Dwells I have referred to as the Archangel. The evidence of the presence of the Archangel is the Word of God, is Shekinah. The angels who compose this Heavenly Body are the Shekinah of the Archangel. The angels are the evidence of the presence of the Archangel. Each angel who is here present on earth in the composition of this body has a human facility of expression. Primarily we see this in terms of the earthly capacity of consciousness, the womb through which the Word of God is to be born into the world. As we are talking of these things, and there is no resistance in you to the spirit of what we share, you do not form concepts with respect to the words that are spoken but there is an actual creative experience. In times past there have been services where nearly everyone present was forming concepts about what was being said. To that extent there was no actual movement in what was happening. If we are busy forming concepts we are excluded from whatever experience was available in the moment. So the use of words, which is essential in this particular pattern of the creative process, is certainly not to generate human concepts but to make it possible for all concerned to participate in something that is actually happening, in a creative process, in the birth of the Word of God into expression on earth.
The Word of God that is being born in the moment certainly is borne witness to by the words that are spoken. But the Word of God is not merely being born by reason of the fact that words are spoken but by reason of the earthly capacity of consciousness in all who are here present being available to let it happen. It is happening, rightly, through your earthly consciousness just as surely as it is happening through mine. We share this birth. The earthly capacity of consciousness rightly bears witness to the truth. It is the facility by which the truth, the Word of God, the Shekinah, may be born into expression on earth. It is not the light, but it bears witness of the light. It makes possible the revelation of that true light, not merely in the individual sense but in the sense of this body as a whole—for the angels are the light which is to be born into expression by reason of the earthly capacity of consciousness. That light could not be born into expression without the earthly capacity of consciousness. That capacity is there to bear witness to the light.
Obviously the earthly capacity of consciousness has been accustomed to bearing false witness. The light is not revealed in the world, in the general sense, by reason of this earthly capacity of consciousness in human beings. But something else is being revealed—there is something borne. So we can see clearly enough that there has been a failure to keep that particular commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Very few people have had any clue as to what that meant. We begin to see what it means. Everybody without exception has been bearing false witness. Of course we have to recognize that we have been bearing false witness, if there is to be any interest in bearing true witness. If there is no recognition that false witness has been borne then there is no incentive to bear true witness, because it is assumed that the false witness is true witness. So the Ten Commandments are, in a general sense, couched in negative terms—“Thou shalt not”—because there must be a recognition of the fact that one was doing something that one should not do before one will be interested in doing what one should do. Of course once we see that we shouldn't be bearing false witness, as presumably we have, then the commandment is Thou shalt bear true witness. Then it begins to mean something in our own awareness and hopefully in our own experience.
The true witness is of the True Light, of Shekinah, of the Word of God. The capacity of consciousness in man in the earthly sense makes possible the bearing of this true witness. The true witness is borne moment by moment in daily living. It isn't born as a sort of grand crescendo at some point. It is a constant and consistent thing rightly. What is born through the individual, when it is true witness, offers what is needful into the whole. What is so born maintains the well-being of the whole, and as there is well-being in the body as a whole that body is then in position to bring forth the Word of God in the creative cycles as needful in the seasons of the Lord. Self-centeredness evaporates then. I doubt if it has entirely evaporated from all of those who think of themselves as Emissaries. What is rightly born though us moment by moment is what is needful to the well-being of this body, that what is needful for the well-being of the whole body of humanity may be born through the collective body which we share.
What lingering elements are present in the earthly consciousness of the angels who presently compose this forming body? “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” This is the word of the angel to the earthly capacity of consciousness. It is your word to your own earthly state of consciousness: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Is your earthly state of consciousness willing to acknowledge where false witness may still be being borne? Only as there is such acknowledgment, so that the false witness is not sustained, will it be possible to bear true witness. Obviously there are many things in human consciousness which need rebuke in this regard.
One area where false witness tends to be borne relates to the attitude which sustains the view that somehow one is being prevented from expressing what is natural to oneself. There is a sense of being restricted from experiencing an adequacy of expression of one's own unique quality. If this is being felt in earthly consciousness, it is because heavenly consciousness is not present to allow the adequate expression to appear. It is something in one's own earthly consciousness that is resisting the expression which would be natural to the angel. Where there is resistance there tends to be discomfort, and where there is discomfort there tends to be an attitude of resentment and blame. There is an ignoring of the fact that if that is one's own experience it is one's own experience and it has nothing to do with anybody else. It is always easy to find those whom one may accuse of imposing something upon oneself, thereby holding others responsible for the fact that one is not experiencing the adequate expression of one's unique self.
There's a wide field upon which one may draw to find those who are responsible for one's own discomfort. We surely see clearly that the discomfort comes solely because there is a resistance to the expression of the Word of God through one's own earthly state of consciousness. There is a resistance on the part of the earthly state of consciousness and that brings with it discomfort. Because most people don't care for discomfort too much it seems expedient to find somebody to blame. But the only thing to blame is the fact of the resistance in oneself, in one's own earthly state of consciousness. It has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone else. It is never true, because the angel is present. Whatever the circumstance is, it is present. The angel is quite capable of expressing the truth of the angelic expression in that circumstance. What is preventing it then? Simply that there is a resistance on the part of the earthly capacity of consciousness to let it happen, and to justify that resistance blame is placed here or there. It is never true—never!
I have asked the question before, “Can you conceive of any situation in which the angel would be incapable of expressing correctly?” I think the Master when He was on earth proved conclusively that there is no such possible situation. Everything in the book was thrown at Him. Did He ever take the attitude, even in the most intensely painful experience, that He was no longer in position to express the Word of God? It is true that at some point His earthly consciousness was not available for any more expression, and so I suppose it could be said at that point that He ceased to express through the earthly state of consciousness. But until that point was reached the expression which appeared through His earthly capacity of consciousness was true to the truth of Himself. It never faltered. He never accused anyone of imposing something on Him which would prevent Him from expressing the Word of God. As an angel nothing can prevent you from expressing the Word of God except the resistance of your own earthly state of consciousness—that and that alone. The frustration which people feel never relates to what someone else is doing. Never!
We have become so expert in justifying ourselves that we have ready-made excuses, files of them. We pull out the drawer and there they all are, but they are all lies, every last one of them, because there is only one thing that can prevent you as the angel from expressing the truth, the Word of God, in whatever circumstance it may be, and that is the resistance of your own earthly capacity of consciousness, the unwillingness of that capacity to let the expression come forth, be born. The earthly state of consciousness has preferred habitually to bring forth complaint, blame, criticism, resentment, dislike, whatever, rather than to bring forth what you as an angel are quite capable of expressing angelically.
So we may share this evening in letting the Word of God be born through our earthly capacities of consciousness in a positive expression which says in effect to the earthly state of consciousness, “Thou shalt bear true witness.” The tendencies of which I have been speaking are the evidence of the bearing of false witness. It is natural for the angel to keep the Ten Commandments. This evening we consider specifically this one, and it is not so unrelated to our momentary experience, is it? “Thou shalt not bear false witness” does not only apply to the times when one may be on the witness stand. It relates to every moment of living, and we see it in terms of Thou shalt bear true witness, because we as angels require this of the earthly state of consciousness, which is our means of bringing forth the Word of God on earth.
Obviously then, when there is alertness the issue of the moment can be handled easily and correctly. Do any of you in your earthly state of consciousness still insist that there is someone, somewhere—we'll bring it down to one now—someone, somewhere, who can restrict you from letting the Word of God be born into expression on earth? Can anyone prevent that happening for you? If so, you are not yet being honest and you have no foundation for bearing true witness. How delightful it is, angelically speaking, to let every last excuse be swept out of the earthly capacity of consciousness so that it may be totally available for the heavenly state of consciousness, totally available for the bringing forth of the Word of God, the creative Word—the only way by which we may fulfil on earth what we are here to do. And that is satisfaction indeed. As angels we are the evidence of the presence of the Archangel in His Body on earth. As angels we are born into expression through the earthly capacity of consciousness, so that the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, in this case the Archangel, is made known on earth—not at all in the sort of words which I am using now but in the fact that the Word of God is being spoken through the consciousness of this body. That is the creative Word. All things were made by Him. All things are made by Him. If there is to be a remaking, then that Word needs to be spoken. It is spoken in living.
We share the resounding of that True Tone on earth. As there is a body the resounding can occur to echo through the earthly consciousness of mankind. Creative power is present. The Fire that burns is present, bearing witness of the One Who Dwells. The Light that glows is present, bearing witness of the Fire that burns. The Cloud of Glory is present, bearing witness of the Light that glows. The heavenly state of consciousness is present, bearing witness of Shekinah. And the earthly state of consciousness is present to bear witness of the heavenly state of consciousness, that Shekinah may be born, that the words essential to that birth may be spoken and may be born into expression in the world—not only the words but the actions, thoughts, words and deeds giving evidence of the presence of the Archangel in creative expression on earth. This expression requires all the angels that are the evidence of His presence, each one of us, and many others who begin to become increasingly apparent.
How richly blessed we are this evening to share this creative experience by which the Word of God is born on earth. I am thankful, most thankful, for each of you whose earthly consciousness has become sufficiently open and willing to let you as the angel be revealed in expression on earth, handling every circumstance that arises, regardless of what it is, regardless of who else may be involved, rightly, in the expression of the Word of God. That is all that's needed. There could be no cause for complaint, could there? It is something that can always be done. As it is consistently so, the creative power of God is certainly in action within the earthly consciousness of mankind, and the evidence of that action becomes apparent in a multitude of different ways. We may rejoice that it is so and continue to let it be so to the glory of God.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
