First Of All We Must Have A Man

First  Of  All  We  Must  Have  A  Man

from  Divine Manhood and Womanhood

Martin Cecil   March 9, 1958

How patient the Lord is! We have remarked on this divine quality many times before. The Lord's patience with the children of men is indeed a marvelous thing. We have seen something of the patience of the Lord as He has builded within the scope of recorded history those structures through which it was His intention to achieve the divine purposes. He builds patiently, carefully, knowing the design, understanding the purpose. And how consistently human beings have wrecked that which the Lord began to build! Some of the destructiveness did not entirely eliminate the opportunity that was offered and it was possible to repair the damage and continue in the cycle, but thus far there has always come a time when the destruction was so complete that the Lord was under the necessity of saying, “That is that! It will not work out that way anymore.” And then He proceeded to work it out, or to make possible an outworking, in another way. We see this in the large patterns of opportunity that He has offered to the children of men which we find recorded in the Old and the New Testaments. But consider the millions and billions of individual human beings who have been builded on earth.

We have taken note of the marvelous mechanism of the physical body of man, the intricacy of its operation, the perfect provision that has been made for the maintenance and balance as it allows the expression of life to manifest in form on earth; and the building of a human mind to the point where it is capable of logical thought, of following out in a pattern of reason, of acquiring essential knowledge for the discharge of responsibility in life. And the heart, the emotional realm of man, though it has been such a limited and distorted thing in fallen man, yet what a marvelous capacity! How flat and meaningless life would be—even more meaningless than human beings have found it—if there were not that capacity to feel, to appreciate, to enjoy, to experience satisfaction. Every human being who has been born into the world has had these capacities in varying degrees, carefully developed and builded during the course of that individual lifetime. And though the Lord has made these miracles possible, He has had to watch human beings throwing away their opportunities, failing utterly to comprehend or to do anything to fulfil the true purpose for which He created them. Generation after generation, the world around, human beings have been born. Their bodies and minds and hearts have been builded; they have lived out a little life span—to what end? From the standpoint of the Lord, what was achieved? In virtually every case, practically nothing—the gift of life wasted; all the Lord's care and provision for the development of that marvelous mechanism by which He might express Himself on earth has gone for nothing. What infinite patience! What faith He has had in the children of men, that there would be those sometime, sooner or later, in sufficient number, who would let this tremendous provision which the Lord has made in relationship to each one come to fruition, be used for the purpose for which it was created. And yet He has had to watch generation after generation simply passing away with nothing to show for it. Patience. Faith. How wonderful is the Lord's patience and His faith!

We might consider that there are those, or have been over the ages, who have in some measure—some more, some less—allowed this mechanism to come to the point of being really useful to the Lord. We have the record of many, particularly in the Old Testament, who did permit the marvelous provision of the Lord in relationship to themselves to have some meaning. A few allowed it to have great meaning. Then our Master came into the world, carefully building an instrument for His use on earth—a physical body with the capacities of mind and heart, growing and maturing, being trained, brought into position to allow that wonderful expression of divine being to be offered to the children of men. The instrument in His case was perfect for the needs of that time, capable of functioning in the fulness of the wisdom of the LORD of Lords, capable of doing the work, capable of being used under absolute control. What a marvelous thing—something that in the same degree had been virtually unknown in the world since man fell, or shortly thereafter. This instrument was developed and brought to this point of capability and capacity, a marvelous thing, so that the ministry of our Lord and King might begin to appear on earth. And human beings undertook to destroy it out of hand, at least they destroyed it insofar as they themselves were concerned. Obliterated it—something that the Lord had so carefully builded! It had only taken Him thirty years. And after three more years it was gone, lost to the world. No wonder there was darkness on that fateful day when our Master hung upon the cross.

And yet how patient He has been. How many millions and billions of human beings have lived on earth since that time, bodies and minds and hearts carefully builded, provided with every opportunity, brought to the point where they might be, if they would be, trained to be the divine instrument on earth. But how many have been willing to let it be so? Very, very few. And in our own lifetime we can remember one man whose body and mind and heart were trained and developed to the point where they might be a true instrument for the expression of the Spirit of Truth on earth, and then, in a moment, it was gone! In his case, forty-seven years on earth, a very brief span, but even so, fourteen years longer than our Master was here in the world. That instrument through which the Spirit of Truth might express was builded with care, the facilities, the capacities, were developed with care, trained, brought to that pitch of perfection which allowed the expression of the Spirit of Truth on earth. And then, no more.

The Lord has builded in relationship to each one of you, carefully, providing every means and opportunity for the development of your capacities, your abilities, so that you might become instruments in His hands for the fulfilment of those purposes for which He created you. How much has He been able to achieve in that regard up to this point? We know His patience; we have all experienced it. How perfect is the instrument at this point? How long do we have to allow Him to complete it into what it should and can easily be?

It is usual in the world of men to consider the next generation. Human beings think to achieve so much so that their children can go on from there, but if the divine purposes are to find fulfilment on earth it must come in one generation. The question is: Are those who are charged with that responsibility, all things else being equal, going to live long enough to let it be? It is indicated that man, under the conditions of the world as it now is, should live threescore years and ten, or thereabouts. You know, in the divine state it took threescore years and ten, approximately, for divine man, divine men and women, to come to the point of being adequately mature to begin to undertake their life work. Just about at the time that the Lord might have developed an instrument to the required pitch, in this day and age, it is liable to become so decrepit that it is no more use. We cannot wait and let the job be done at one and the same time.

The Lord seeks to build the essential instrument on earth. We have examples of what happens when the outworking is left to future generations. It is not a very victorious picture. Little distortions, little deviations, become greater and greater, and soon any resemblance to the original is virtually nonexistent. Not too many of those who call themselves Christians would be willing to acknowledge that in relationship to Christianity, but by and large it is true. It has scarcely any resemblance to that which our Master brought into the world; it is unrecognizable except for those who have a measure of spiritual vision, and then, to understand, they do not need to look at Christianity, as it is called in the world; the understanding does not come by looking at it. It is those who have the present opportunity, who are associated with the original, who may do the job. It is possible that if they do not do the job their children may; it is possible.

But we have an outstanding example of failure in the experience of the children of Israel—we have considered that point many times—when they had the opportunity to move on through into the promised land. They had come out of Egypt, they had spent a little time in the wilderness—not very long—and the opportunity was presented to them to move on through into the promised land. Certain ones of them looked the situation over and decided that the giants were too big, that while it was a fine land, flowing with milk and honey, it was really too much of a job to go on in, and their counsel prevailed. And so the children of Israel did not go on in in the way which the Lord had opened before them. We can perhaps speculate as to what might have happened if they had gone on through. The task at that time would have been easy, far easier than it was later, and the precedent of failure would not have been established, which later, if the victory was ever to be known, had to be overcome. The outworking in the promised land itself would of course have been much more rapid, because there would have been proof that the children of Israel were letting the Lord direct and control in the outworking of that which He Himself had established. But no, they would not let it be that way. And they had to stay in the wilderness until that generation had died, that the next generation might have the chance. Well, as we know, in the ultimate outworking it failed. That first generation could have gone on through if they had been willing to do so.

For us this also is true, and it seems to me that there is more indication, which we can perceive on a reasonable basis, that those of us who participate in this opportunity had better go on through, for the next generation may not have the chance. We would that those who are of the next generation should share the fulfilment with us, but let us not imagine that we can leave it to them. It is our responsibility; it is our opportunity; and the Lord has builded carefully, in spite of failures along the way, and brought this present cycle to this time. Let us not try His patience any further, so that we may, by our own choice and action, let Him complete the instrument that is needed both with respect to each one as an individual and with respect to all together. He is capable of doing it; there has never been any question with regard to that. But are you, and other responding ones who share this opportunity, going to take advantage of it so that you may let the job be done in you? Our Master let it be done in Him, through His body and mind and heart when He was on earth, in thirty years. Most of you are older than that; some of you may be younger. Those who are younger do not need to wait. Those who are older have obviously been waiting too long.

Yesterday evening I spoke of the confidence which the Lord has had in you, and I suggested to you that there is no valid reason why you should not share His confidence, so that you are confident in that which God has established in you. Human beings feel inadequate, imperfect, sometimes wicked. They feel that they have limitations, and the devil does all in his power, either through the individual's own mind or through somebody else, to convince human beings that that is all they are—inadequate, limited, sinful, wretched, miserable, poor, hopeless and helpless. Most human beings feel that way underneath, and so when someone comes along and says, “That's the way you are,” the individual says, “Yes, that is the way I feel. He must be right.” The devil was a liar from the beginning. The Lord has confidence in you, otherwise you would not be here on earth. And if He has confidence in you it should be safe to acknowledge that He is right, and that no matter what you feel, no matter what anyone says, no matter what your experience may be, the devil is a liar. As long as you can be convinced of sin you are under the thumb of the devil. When you recognize that truth, you can see what controls in the world of Christianity. It is not God, is it? It is not the Lord. It is not that in which the Lord has confidence that controls. There are many wrong things in the world, probably still many wrong things in you. The Lord has no confidence in wrong things. But there is that in you in which He has confidence and in which you may have confidence. Trust that and do not let all these supposed limitations cause you to distrust it. Because you happen to feel this way and that way, because on the basis of your experience you have had this failure and that failure, do not take the attitude that you cannot have confidence in that in you in which the Lord has confidence.

You know, females in the world tend to have a certain attitude toward their menfolk. Because they feel insecure, uncertain of themselves, because they know they are not what they ought to be, and because they realize, subconsciously at least, that they need a point somewhere upon which they can depend, they are inclined to attempt, in relationship to their menfolk, to test them, to try to tear down, to destroy, in order to find out if there is anything there that is dependable. It is a backhanded way of doing it. That does not excuse men from being so weak and letting themselves be so convinced. What is needed is to find women who will not be so concerned with weakness but will begin to consider that point of strength, that point in which the Lord has confidence, in her man; to encourage that, to support that, to give her response to that, and to refuse to do what she has been inclined to do in the past—insist upon all the weaknesses.

How does this pattern work out? First of all we must have a man somewhere. Women are not going to do it just on their own hook. They never have thus far, and from my standpoint at least, I see no possibilities that they ever will. There needs to be a man—at least one man—to initiate the cycle. And then there must be one or more women who respond and begin to give support, begin to let themselves be changed in basic attitudes so that they do give support and backing and response to that point of strength. Then there begins to be something by means of which there may be the initiation of a creative cycle, so that the influence may begin to extend beyond, and other men and women may come, the men not imagining that they are perfect all at once and the women not insisting that they should be all at once. But it is on the basis of the attitude of the female to the male, of the woman to the man, that the reality of divine womanhood may appear. There is no such thing as a divine woman until she has found her correct attitude toward divine man. She cannot do it on her own.

You may recall the story of the creation, of man in the beginning, which indicated that Adam was created first and that Eve was taken out of Adam. In other words her being is absolutely dependent upon her relationship to man. She cannot be a divine woman, she cannot be what she was created to be, without her man, or without the reality of divine manhood. I am not speaking of it necessarily from the individual standpoint. We have husbands and wives, and they have something to learn. But we do have a pattern in which there are men and women, and it is something that should manifest on the right basis from the collective standpoint of men and women. The men cannot make the women over. Don't let them try it! They are responsible for being men, and when they are men, those who are willing to be true women will appear. A man who is really a man does not want anything else; he does not want the imitation; he simply is not interested. It must come on the right basis. It is needful, then, that men should be concerned about being men. Never mind about the women; just be concerned about being a man. And the women should be concerned about being women. Never mind about trying to make the men over; that is not required. But to be women they must recognize the necessity of their right relationship to the men. They cannot be women without it. If we eliminated all the men from the face of the earth—oh my!—we certainly would not have any true women. That should be obvious enough.

So the women need to recognize that point of strength, that point in the men in which the Lord has confidence, and begin to respond to that and support that, to give themselves to that in response. This is the basis, in this particular pattern, for true spiritual intimacy of which I spoke before. As long as women persist in their attitudes of tearing down and destroying they will never find that for which they are looking, and they reveal in that attitude the attitude of the whole of mankind toward God.

Human beings sought to destroy the Lord when He came, to tear Him down, to eliminate Him, imagining that if He was the Lord, well that would be impossible; so if He stood they could say, “Well that is fine! Here's the Lord; we will believe on Him now.” So has it ever been since man first fell, and so has it ever been in relationship to women with men—the same pattern. Let us let it be changed. Let us, as men, be concerned about being men, true men, having confidence in that in which God has confidence; and as women, let there be concern about being true women and finding the correct attitude toward men. As long as the old world attitudes are persisted in there can never be fulfilment; we can never do the job; we can never let that instrument come to the point of its perfection which is required to let the Lord do the works. Let us not try the Lord's patience in this matter anymore but play our parts in letting the reality of divine manhood and womanhood appear once more on earth to give glory to God in the highest, that there may indeed be the rule of the Prince of Peace on earth and the doing of God's will in the world of mankind.

© Emissaries of Divine Light