Brought  Face-to-Face  With  Facts

from  True Brinksmanship

Martin Cecil   October 1, 1961

With the pressure coming on in the world of man, the necessity of playing our parts correctly becomes even more evident. If we are to serve truly, we rejoice in the increase of pressure. We know very well that that which is being experienced in the world is just exactly the way it should be. “Not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law, until all be fulfilled.” Pressures are an essential part of the outworking of God's purposes, for human beings have given abundant evidence that they will let it be on no other basis. Opportunities have been offered over and over again by God for the fulfilment to come in the easy way, so that all the children of men might experience the blessing which God offers so freely, but time and again it has been made evident that human beings will not move, will not even consider the ways of God, without harsh and tragic experience. And so it is today. If any in this unhappy world are to experience restoration there must be those who are capable of leading the way; there must be those who, in the circumstances as they now are, have themselves adequately experienced the restoration so that they may be in position to offer leadership and to share that which they know with others.

You all have a recognition of the fact that we must be in the world but not of it. We are of no value if we are out of the world, and we are of no value if we are in the world and of it. We are only in position to play a constructive part when we are in the world but not of it. In the creative processes of God there is that which acts and there is that which is acted upon. For the essential restoration to take place in this sphere of God's creation these two aspects of creative function are required: that which acts and that which is acted upon. It is evident that if order is to be brought to this chaotic world there must be that which acts in the creative sense, capable of restoring or bringing forth order. Obviously there is a very great deal to be acted upon. If we are identified with that which is being acted upon, with this great mass which is observable all around us, we will find ourselves in a realm of increasingly tense discomfort. How capable are we, at this point, of holding true to an identity with that which acts, so that we do not find ourselves in the realm of being acted upon? Obviously, if we are simply in the realm of being acted upon we are in the same state as everyone else. Here is the distinction between those who are in the world and of the world and those who are in the world but not of the world. The only way by which anyone can be in the world and not of the world is to be identified with that which is acting rather than that which is being acted upon.

Recognizing the importance of the increasing pressures in the world for the outworking of the Divine purposes, we should be keenly aware of the importance of our own clearing from an identification with that which is being acted upon. We could hardly rejoice in the evidence of increased pressure if we were ourselves subject to that pressure. Human beings who place themselves in that position are concerned with finding a way of escape. If we function correctly we are glad that there is no way of escape. Every seeming avenue of escape is being closed, so that human beings become increasingly aware of the fact that there is no way of escape. Always hitherto it has seemed that there could be a way of escape, and so people have not, in any general sense, been willing to face themselves. They always felt that if the worst came to the worst they could duck out. But now, where would we go to escape? There is no place on the face of the earth, and fortunately there isn't much place yet to go to through outer space. Everyone is trapped in a condition where there is no escape. It seems like a terrible thing to those who begin to become aware of it, something to engender desperation; but to those who are wise and who understand, it is cause for rejoicing, because finally mankind in the fallen state is being brought face-to-face with facts, facts that hitherto they have been able to avoid facing. There was always a way of escape, but at last, as it inevitably would, the time comes when man has produced the conditions which force him to face the facts. Of course at this point very few have actually done it. But as the pressure increases it will become most definitely apparent to all people that they have reached the end of their self-active endeavors. There is no way by which they can be successfully continued without complete self-destruction

We note the increasing pressure as it relates to the world situation. We begin to appreciate the correct attitude toward it of those who truly serve. “Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them,” for the time is at hand. The pressure must mount to whatever heights are necessary for the fulfilment of the Divine purposes. This is the reason for it from our standpoint, and we can observe how human beings are playing into the hands of the Lord. It has sometimes been thought that there have arisen certain scourges in the world in order to compel human beings in the right direction, the assumption being that God raised up wicked men to bring this pressure to bear. Of course God did not do anything of the sort. God raises up those who respond to Him. But the actions of self-active human beings have produced conditions where self-active human beings have certainly played a part which the Lord was capable of using to advantage. He did not put them there to do it. They put themselves there, with the help of many others. But seeing that they were there, the situation has been used to advantage, and it is being used to advantage now.

Those who have been dwelling, as they supposed, safely in the so-called free world are very much irritated and afraid because of what the communists are doing—most disturbing. We cannot continue to enjoy ourselves as we used to do. That's about the size of it. “Why don't they leave us alone, so that we can enjoy ourselves as we please?” It would be too bad if it was that way. When human beings are prosperous and self-satisfied they imagine they do not need God. As a little background insurance they may maintain their membership in a church. They do not really need God, they think. The pressure comes on, things begin to get difficult, and there is a turning toward God. “God help us to preserve our way of life. Our way of life, if you please. Of course our way of life is good; therefore it must be the right way of life. God must support us in it, naturally.” This seems to be the reasoning. And so it is very disturbing when the Germans or the Russians, or somebody or other, begin to bring pressure to bear. However, it happens this way. And from the standpoint of the Lord it is a wonderful thing, just right. I suppose we could say that the communists are doing a good job in this regard. They may think that they are going to achieve their own ends by it, and that is all right; they probably would not be doing it if they did not think that. So let them do it, because we need the pressure; human beings are not going to come to the point of repentance without it.

However, we recognize at the same time that there must be a control which holds what we might call the balance. The maintenance of an adequate measure of control in the world, so that pressure can be increased without going over the brink, is important. On the one hand we recognize, from the standpoint of the fulfilment of the Divine purposes, greatly increased pressure is needed; on the other hand we see what an unfortunate thing it would be if this increase of pressure took human beings over the brink. So there is a nice balance point there. In order to maintain it there is the necessity of having something on earth which is capable of extending Divine control into the world of man's making on the basis of God's power.

You have some vision in this regard, recognizing the relationship between your individual, personal environmental affairs and the larger picture as it relates to the world as a whole. These things are not separated in actual fact. They certainly are not separated from the standpoint of that which must be done through this Ministry. How much rebellion or objection or feeling of being overwhelmed is there yet in you when the pressure begins to mount in your own environmental field? If you can't handle your own environmental fields on the right basis I don't think you would be much use in relationship to the direct service as it applies to the world situation. As has been repeatedly emphasized, it is what you do in your little affairs—and they are very small in actual fact, relatively speaking—that determines as to whether we have control or not. We take the attitude that we welcome an increase of pressure. Where? Just out there somewhere? In relationship to people over there? Well that is part of it, yes—we need increased pressures out there. But do you think you can have increased pressure out there without having it right here? Of course not! It is going to be everywhere. If we relinquish right control here, with respect to our fields of responsibility in this Ministry, where will the control come from to maintain the balance out there?

Can we look at this honestly, with a true recognition of fact? I have been observing some little pressures building up here and there—actually nothing to speak of, and yet how quickly a sense of being overwhelmed arises. We only feel overwhelmed when we begin to identify ourselves with the things that are being acted upon. We need to recognize something here, because our physical bodies have a very obvious relatedness to that field of affairs which is being acted upon. If we are identified with our physical bodies we shall find ourselves subject to the state of being acted upon. Our identification needs to be with that which is acting. When it is, our physical bodies may share the action; but if we are identified with our physical bodies, then we reverse polarity and we will be overwhelmed. The physical body is privileged to share the Divine action, but it is not the source of the Divine action. We are to be identified with the Divine action. We recognize that our physical bodies are important to enable us to be in the world, but if, at the same time, they cause us to be of the world then we nullify the value of our being in the world. We might just as well not be here. We are in the world because we have physical bodies—and we see the importance of being in the world—but we are not of the world, because we let our identity be with that which is acting and not with our physical bodies. While we have a keen awareness of the importance of the physical body, it does not dominate our attitudes. It is important because it enables us to be identified with that which is acting while we are on earth, but we can be identified with that which is acting, regardless of whether we are on earth or not.

So we begin to allow something of the reorientation in attitude toward our own physical bodies. This is not what we are. This is simply the means by which we are enabled to be in the world, and consequently to be in position to let that which is acting come into the world through our physical bodies. We welcome pressure when we are identified with that which is acting, because such action, extending from the Divine source, partakes of the irresistible force, and there is no pressure possible of being engendered on earth which can be greater than that. Therefore we are in position to maintain control, and it is the maintenance of that control which is so vital as this pressure is built up.

Now where are we going to maintain that control? Are we going to imagine that it is somehow reaching out to those in responsible positions in the world? By some magic means we are going to make sure that they behave? No, if it is going to be at all, it is going to be right where the person is, in the immediate environment, in relationship to the immediate affairs. If we say we welcome pressure in the world because we see the necessity of it for the fulfilment of the Divine purposes, we welcome it right here where we are. We are delighted to let it build up in our environment. If we find that in our environment there is a state of disorder, well there is a state of disorder in the world. The question is as to what our attitude is toward it, what we do, what our function is in relationship to that. Do you imagine that we are going to be able to get everything just so, to suit ourselves? I don't think so. I don't think we would be of any use to anyone if we got it that way. We have to be able to meet situations as they are in the world, not as we would like them to be; and if we find disordered states within the scope of our own field of responsibility, well that's fine. If we rebel against it we are rebelling against pressure, and if we are rebelling against pressure we are rebelling against God, because that is absolutely necessary in the fulfilment of the divine purposes, human beings being the way they are.

So with the attitude that says, “Oh isn't this terrible? What awful things I have to deal with! Why can't people function rightly, so that I wouldn't be under this pressure?” we are sure to fail. Have we reached a point where we are in position to handle pressure on the right basis, or not? If we haven't, God help the world, unless there is some group of people somewhere of which I know nothing doing the right thing. To take responsibility to stand firm and to work through whatever it is without being moved by it—this is being in the world but not of it. The idea of being in the world and not of it has been to so many such a fanciful thing. It has not been real at all. Right where we are, we are in the world; right where we are, we can so function that we are not of it. Of course that is the only place we can function anyhow.

Pressure. Those things which we experience day by day, what is our attitude toward them? How do we handle them? How do we meet the issue? Do we get all bothered about it? If so, we are identified with that which is being acted upon. We are absolutely useless. When a little pressure comes, what do you do? Do you throw in the sponge? Here, in relationship to our little daily affairs, is where the control pattern is established, if it is established. If it is not established here it is not established anywhere else insofar as we are concerned. There will be those things which come to us by reason of what is occurring out there. Problems of different sorts will be increasing as the days go by. There will be those things which are more personal in nature in the immediate environment. What do we do? What is our attitude? Where is our identity? “Rejoice, ye heavens,” as the pressure comes on. That pressure will be felt, because we have physical bodies in this world. We are not exempt. Of course it is felt. If we were exempt from it of what value could we be to anyone else? Everyone else has to take it. So do we in that sense. The difference is that we should be centered and identified with that which is acting. If you are all involved in the self-interests of your physical body in various ways, you cannot at the same time be identified with that which is acting. So we are very much aware of the pressure. Of course. Necessarily so. Everyone else is and will be increasingly. But we surely should know how to handle it, how to meet it, how to deal with it, how to work through it, that the evidence of victory may be seen on earth. The very moment a person begins to become involved with that which is being acted upon, it looks like a hopeless business. And of course it is, in that state, absolutely hopeless. That is why pressure is so valuable, because it forces people into the recognition that it is hopeless to continue in that way. If we become involved in the patterns of futility, what failure that is, because we know better. We do know better.

And how is it that the direction of your identification is determined? By the direction of your response. If your response is to that which is being acted upon, well then you are going to be acted upon; if your response is to that which is doing the acting, then you share in the action. There is no doubt, no fear, no uncertainty—there is no pressure that can be engendered on earth which would be overwhelming—none at all. Conceivably it could be overwhelming to the physical body. It seemed to be so in our Master's case, didn't it? But His identification with that which acts was not broken—neither need it be for any of us. It is only as that connection is maintained, held, so that we are on the Rock, that this glorious opportunity can be used to advantage in the fulfilment of the Divine purposes. Everything is just set right; we wouldn't have it any other way at all. This is the way human beings have made it. All right, we accept it that way, and we will use it to advantage. And we recognize that the pressure is going to increase; human beings insist upon having it that way. It is a deliberate thing insofar as human beings are concerned. All right, that's fine. We can take it. We know how. Most other people do not. And there are very definite ceilings from the standpoint of self-active human beings. Some are able to maneuver to higher levels, and they are the ones who are the top dogs in the world of man, but they can only go just so far.

But these things have to be proven out. It is not a matter of talking about it, theorizing about it. We need to see these things before they happen, but we need to be able to function correctly as they do happen. And our ability to do so is determined moment by moment in relationship to these things around us. And when we can handle these things and maintain the control firmly at all times, we can do a little maneuvering in the field of brinkmanship ourselves, and have it work to the glory of God.

© Emissaries of Divine Light