The Perspective of the King
Lord Exeter May 25, 1986 Pacific Council
This is not only a service hour this morning but an hour which concludes the Pacific Council which has been in session over the last several days. Any conclusion is always, at the same time, a beginning. From our standpoint, in any beginning God creates. This may be so to the extent that we ourselves permit and participate in this creation.
During this Council earthly things have been considered from a heavenly perspective. This has been possible to the extent that there has been repentance from considering earthly things from an earthly perspective. If it is necessary to repent from maintaining an earthly perspective with respect to earthly things in order to rise up sufficiently to view earthly things from a heavenly perspective, how then could heavenly things be considered? To try to consider heavenly things from a heavenly perspective would not be any more fruitful than trying to understand earthly things from an earthly perspective. The human state of consciousness of course is always endeavoring to understand earthly things from an earthly perspective. Mental analysis of earthly things is undertaken and there is a great process of dissection which occurs. Indeed there is the necessity of repenting from an earthly approach to a consideration of earthly things, in order that there might be some experience of resurrection to a heavenly level of understanding and a heavenly perspective of earthly things. I would say that this certainly has characterized the various considerations that have been brought to point during this Pacific Council.
There is a greater sense of comfort and ease in considering earthly things from this perspective than there used to be. It has become more natural. Here is evidence of a creative process at work in the experience of all concerned, and also a willingness to participate in this creative process a little less reluctantly than may have been the case in times past. Through experience we find out that it is a very delightful and satisfying experience to move in the cycles of resurrection. We have only done so to the extent that there has been a relinquishing of the earthly perspective of earthly things, and that relinquishment is defined by the word repentance. One can continue to insist to view earthly things from an earthly perspective—to that extent there has been no repentance. Repentance comes when there is the relinquishment of this earthly perspective of earthly things. It takes a rather deliberate stance to do this. It has been so customary for human beings to limit themselves to this viewpoint. There are many ramifications to this viewpoint, some of which seem to be progressive, but they are all in fact deadly.
During this time of the Council there has been a rising up, as there has been in a general sense in this whole body of ministry, a rising up in repentance to the point where earthly things might be viewed from a heavenly standpoint. Let there be no sense of self-satisfaction in this, because it is only a beginning of participation in the creative process. There needs to be further repentance to occur in the relinquishing of the heavenly perspective of earthly things, because if one is involved with heaven in this way one cannot understand heavenly things—we cannot understand heavenly things until we are no longer involved in the heavenly perspective. This is not to say that the heavenly perspective has not freed up our awareness with respect to earthly things, but as long as we remain involved merely in that heavenly perspective we cannot understand heavenly things.
One considers whatever it is, at whatever level it is, rightly from a higher point. The earth may begin to be comprehended, the things that are occurring in the earth can begin to be understood, because there has been a rising up to a higher level of perspective which we call heavenly perspective. That is a step which has been taken by many of you, and others who are playing their part in this creative process. So there is the experience of resurrection to that extent. In order to be in position to consider heavenly things one must have risen to a level of perspective which is above the heaven. We could refer to this level of perspective as the perspective of the King. It is the perspective of God brought to focus in relationship to the earth. The perspective of God is of the heaven and the earth; there is the comprehension of the wholeness, of the oneness, of heaven and earth.
If we merely examine the earth from the heavenly perspective, there is a state of separation being maintained between the heaven and the earth: Now we are up a bit higher we can look at the earth; there it is, apparently separate from the heaven; it isn't, after all, reflecting the heaven. But how shall the earth reflect the heaven if we do not comprehend the heaven? If we merely stand in a higher position and look at the earth, we may pat ourselves on the back and say, “Well now I understand what's going on.” The fact of the matter is that we don't really. We are just seeing things from a little different perspective, that's all. But the point has not been reached where there is true understanding, because true understanding comprehends the whole—there is a consciousness of oneness.
So our concern rightly is to continue in this cycle of repentance. We haven't finished yet! How quickly the tendency is to become self-satisfied, to assume that one has repented simply because there is a new perspective. This new perspective when it first begins to put in an appearance is remarkable, because it is unprecedented insofar as we are concerned. It is something new. This perspective from heaven sees something of a new earth—we see the earth in a different way. But what about the new heaven? To see the heaven in a new way requires a new stance which establishes a new point of perspective. As I say, this point of perspective is in God. Insofar as our own field of responsibility is concerned with respect to the heaven and the earth, it is in the One we have referred to as the King. Our stance must be the stance of the King if heaven and earth are to be seen in the new, true perspective.
On this basis then there may be consideration of the heaven, because we are no longer involved in the heaven. Heaven and earth, after all, are the creation. But there is a Creator if there is a creation, and the stance of the Creator permits a true and accurate perspective with respect to the creation—which includes heaven and earth as one. I am sure in our own awareness there has been a sense of separation between heaven and earth. That is bound to exist until the point of unifying perspective is experienced. Obviously there is a need during the process of resurrection to rise up through whatever is present between one's immediate positioning and the point to which one is rightly to come. One must pass through the intervening space, and this has been occurring.
There has been a release in consciousness which has allowed this new perspective of the earth to be encompassed, first of all in vision, outlook, attitude, but then also necessarily in action. If it merely remains a thing of mind and emotions the state of separation still exists. But rising up we come through the heaven, as we came through the earth, to the Apex Point, where there may be participation in the outlook and attitude of the King toward the creation, which is an extension of Himself. It becomes therefore an extension of oneself if one rises up to that point of Apex, which is the focus centered in the King.
It's interesting that when the Master was on earth He provided what He Himself referred to as the Way, the Truth and the Life, so that there might be opportunity for all to rise up to the true point of perspective which is established by reason of man. There is indication in three of the Gospels of an occasion when, as it is put in the seventeenth Chapter of Matthew, He took Peter, James and John, three of the disciples, up into a high mountain. Obviously this wasn't a mountaineering expedition. There were no high mountains handy. So reference here is to something else: rising up to a new level of perspective in which these three men were invited to share. This wasn't just for them but simply to open the door through them to the whole of mankind, to rise up once more to the point of true perspective. This occasion would subsequently be referred to as the transfiguration, an incomprehensible story to most, certainly to the three disciples who were on hand. When it happened Peter didn't know what to say. It didn't occur to him that he might just keep his mouth shut. If one doesn't know what to say, why not keep one's mouth shut?
In any case, regardless of whatever the reaction of the disciples might have been, something was established to open the door wide, not only between heaven and earth but through to this Supreme Point of Apex above the heaven, from which real perspective is made possible. Anywhere below that point there is what might be described as a modified perspective—it is somewhat inaccurate, untrue. This perspective from the mountain peak in a physical sense, if we are thinking of a mountain which comes to a peak above and beyond the surrounding countryside, will be a perspective which is all-inclusive, 360 degrees. Anywhere else but at that point the perspective will be restricted. Ascending the mountain, of course, there is only a one-sided perspective. Only when you come to the peak can it be complete. So mountains were often used symbolically to portray what was necessary for the restoration of man. Man belongs at the peak.
From the standpoint of our own experience, if we are honest we know that we do not have the peak experience. This should not be a matter of self-condemnation, because certainly there is whatever is required to bring one to the peak. We have described that as the creative process relative to our own experience. So there has been a movement which we have known individually, and have shared to whatever extent collectively, rising up into the heaven, so that we might have a heavenly perspective. There has been at times, with some, a certain sense of self-satisfaction that one has a heavenly perspective which most other people don't have, so that makes one rather superior to most other people. But it hasn't accomplished anything if by reason of such an attitude we sit down on the mountainside and go no further. Then we might as well have stayed in the plain.
Our concern is to participate in the creative process, which is not going to drop us off at any point. If we are participating in it we are carried by it and we rise up to a point where we have a heavenly perspective of earthly things, to whatever extent that is. Yes, we look out over the plains from the mountainside and like most human beings there usually is the thought: “My, isn't this a wonderful view; I should build my house here!” Well at the moment we are not in the house building business in this sense because we are responsible for a great deal more than sitting and admiring the view. If we use this analogy again of the mountainside, then if you are going to continue in the ascent you have to turn around with your back to the view. I don't know if you ever tried walking up a mountain backwards but it could be quite a dangerous business. So you have to address the necessities of the immediate moment in participation with the creative process regardless of the view. I suppose one may pause a little for breath occasionally and sit down and look at the view, and the view may help to restore energy and make it easily possible to continue the ascent, but let us never become fascinated by the view.
There is a creative process which will carry us to the mountaintop, and incidentally, from the mountaintop the intent is not to sit there and admire the view any more than it was during the processes of ascent. The view is magnificent and any way one turns there it is, but it is there because there is something to be done by reason of the continued working of the creative process. One's encompassment of the view is for a purpose, not merely self-satisfaction. So this way of describing the continued working of the creative process may give a sense of what it is that is the ongoing necessity: for one thing, never to indulge in an attitude of self-satisfaction.
Stay humble. It's not difficult if one has a constant awareness of the fact that there is a continuing necessity for repentance. We don't have it made yet, and if that is the fact, then obviously there are some things still to be relinquished. It seems like a task involving great sweat of the brow, to walk up a mountain with heavy weights on one's back. There are a lot of weights to be shed, a lot of human possessions to be relinquished. I am not so much thinking of possessions in the external sense, but of those factors present in oneself which do not belong. Such must be relinquished, and that is repentance. One relinquishes one's grip, which seems not to be a very onerous task. It involves less of the sweat of the brow than maintaining the grip. Ahh! At last! That is repentance. What is so difficult about it?
We have had the personal necessity of relinquishing elements that we have come to recognize are not on Tone, as we might say, various factors in our own experience and expression which do not reveal the quality, the nobility of character of the King. We do not as yet have the required understanding of the character of the King, but we know enough at the point where we may be on the mountainside. We don't know enough from the standpoint of standing on the peak. So there need be no self-judgment, but obviously there must be a relinquishment of those things in one's own character, in one's own attitude and expression of living, which obviously do not characterize the King.
So there is repentance, repentance, repentance, as these things become apparent, as these factors come into view. Because we are rising up they come into view, not for the purpose of mulling over them but merely for the purpose of relinquishing them. As we do so we find ourselves becoming lighter. We have associated ourselves with the term emissary of divine light, but I have noted a certain amount of heaviness around at times. This is an indication to anyone of course, if the heaviness comes in their own experience, that they are carrying unnecessary weight. Something needs to be relinquished; and, again, what a sigh of relief when that is done. A person who actually does it says, “Why didn't I do this long ago?” Of course one has to become aware of what it is that is the weight, and this requires honesty. It is said of satan that he was a liar from the beginning. He has always been dishonest and yet he has always required loyalty from his followers. In other words, if he is dishonest all his followers must be dishonest too. And human beings have gone right along with that. But as there is repentance one comes free of these things, one becomes aware of one's dishonesty, what has been dishonest in one's own attitude.
There are those who have complained about the fact that I bring these things up. It seems to me that if there is such complaint it is very clear indication that the individual is carrying around some things that certainly have not yet been relinquished and which the person is very reluctant to relinquish. I know, to those who participate in this process of repentance easily and naturally, speaking of the things that need to be relinquished is a relief: Let's let them go, now we see them! And I doubt if they would ever be seen if we didn't give them some consideration: “Look at this heavy ingot of lead that is in your knapsack.” People resist that, fight against it: “Don't tell me what is in my knapsack! I don't want to know. I have always carried it around; I would feel unnatural if I didn't.” Of course it isn't put this way by the person concerned, but here we see why there is a necessity to refer to the weights. If everyone was willing now to be completely honest I would never refer to them again. That's a promise! But as long as they are there I am going to refer to them, and if you don't like it, that is up to you, but it will have no influence upon me at all.
There are those who have over the years attempted to tell me what I should do and how I should do it. They don't even know what they themselves should do or how they should do it, so how can they tell me? Nothing that can be brought to bear on me will change my expression from being what is needful in the moment. I make that statement and put myself on the spot thereby, but I think we all need to put ourselves on the spot in this way. As long as we can keep little excuses: “Well, I am not as strong as I ought to be yet, therefore I can't put myself on the spot…” That sounds like a good excuse. “Give me a little more time; I will strengthen up and somewhere along the way I will be strong enough so that I can do it.” One can do what needs to be done now; it is the only time it can be done anyway. And what needs to be done now is what relates to oneself and one's state of consciousness now, not to something in the future. There may be things, and will be things, in the future, but what is it now?
So we share in rising up to the mountaintop. Now the three disciples in the story were taken by Jesus to the mountaintop; they couldn't go on their own. And even when they were there they didn't know it, there was no comprehension of what the outlook was from the mountaintop. That was all right at that point because they were willing anyway to ascend the mountain with the Master, which was the process of opening a door for everybody. They were uncomprehending. In one of the stories it says that they were very heavy with sleep. This, incidentally, was a forerunner to the occasion in the garden of Gethsemane. They were heavy with sleep, so whatever the experience was seemed to them like a dream. They didn't talk about it much afterwards; they must have said something because somebody wrote about it. But the person who wrote about it didn't know what it was, and those who participated in it at the time didn't know what it was, so it is not unexpected that it wouldn't make much sense to anyone else later. There has been a certain amount of analysis and study, trying to figure out what it was that was going on. But here was a very natural thing: rising up to the mountaintop, the place where man belongs, where there is a consciousness of the expression of Spirit and an awareness then, by reason of that expression, of what that Spirit is.
It was described in the story in symbolical terms. There was Jesus, and Moses and Elias (that is Elijah of the Old Testament) talking with Him. This is an interpretation that somebody made and it has its base in the truth of the matter, which was and is that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Life in communion—they were talking together—in oneness, just One Spirit. But there were three of the disciples there, which had its significance also, although not in their conscious awareness. But Peter, who seemed to be rather an emotional chap, couldn't keep quiet. He felt it was incumbent upon him to say something, so he said something inane. A bright cloud covered the scene, and so the awareness that had been momentarily touched was lost. I am not saying there was something wrong with that. It was all that could happen at that time, and it did establish the point of connection, the point where true perspective may be known, the point where man belongs, at the peak, the point where it is clear that heaven and earth are one and that the Creator, oneself, is one with his or her creation.
So there is repentance continually required, that there may be a rising up through the heaven to the point where there may be an examination of heavenly things, and in doing so there will at the same time be an examination of earthly things, because heaven and earth are one. But from the standpoint of heavenly perspective alone the earth seems to be a separate place. One can see things going on in the earth from a new perspective but it does not include the things that are going on in the heaven yet. Only when one rises up to the peak where the identity is with the King can the whole picture be seen and the whole of one's expression be included in the creative process.
I rejoice that we might touch into this, partly so that we do not subside into a state of self-satisfaction, but also because here is a part of the experience continuing to unfold. There needs to be a consciousness of the fact, so that it is a state of affairs that is understood. Whether individually we understand it or not is beside the point. It is understood from the standpoint of that Apex Point on the mountaintop.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
