Snap of the Fingers!

Snap  of  the  Fingers!

Martin Cecil   July 25, 1979   Assembly

How great is our experienced stature? We can have some awareness of the possibility that there is greater stature than we have been aware of; however, what are we aware of? What we are aware of gives indication as to how operational our stature is. In our recognition of the necessities of spiritual government we easily see that a large stature is necessary. Who provides that stature? There is no government without those who compose it, so it is our experienced stature that is important. We are inclined glibly to say we need to be able to encompass the world, but how do we do it? We may bring it down a little closer to home by saying that individually we need to encompass our individual worlds. How big is your individual world—the operational portion of it, that is? We can say that our individual worlds have great scope, but that is mostly imaginary at the moment. The extent to which we actually do encompass our individual worlds establishes the bounds of those worlds in operational experience.

We are well aware that most people are totally incapable of encompassing any world—their own individual worlds or certainly anything larger than that. But what about us—ones who are presumably concerned about generating the substance of government? We have generated a certain quantity and quality of the substance of education—that has been done. Not sufficiently as yet perhaps; there's a lot more to be generated in this regard. But how much substance of government has been generated? This is not generated apart from ourselves. How much substance of government do we have actually present because it's been generated? Now this is a personal matter of consideration to start with, because it depends upon the extent to which we have accepted our individual worlds and are providing spiritual government there. While we may have these large visions of something worldwide, it always starts right where we are, with respect to the rather small world that human beings tend to magnify disproportionately. But it is in this actually rather small world that the evidence of spiritual government needs to be made known, because it is on this basis, when we have a spiritually governed little world around us, that we are generating the substance which, when combined with the substance generated by others, gives us sufficient substance to begin to extend the borders of our tent, so that we include in our field of government whatever can be encompassed by this larger realm of generated substance. So it all always comes back to what we do individually with respect to our individual worlds.

Now here is something I find myself running into all the time—and that is the necessity of accepting one's world the way it is. The world that the individual has, populated by whoever it is populated by, is the world that has been brought to that individual and is the world of his responsibility. I suppose it may be said that it is included in my world of responsibility, but that individual is specifically responsible for that world. And so, no one needs to come moaning about the way that other people are behaving in that world and explaining, as very often is done, at great length as to why they cannot do what they're supposed to be doing in their world because of the behavior of everybody else. That's childish, isn't it! That's ducking out from responsibility, because there is no one else responsible for that world but that person. You are responsible for you, and that includes everything that is included in your world. Each of us has that responsibility. There is the inclination to judge what is present in our worlds on the basis of our pre-established concepts, so we may say, “Well, this person is not behaving as he should.” That may or may not be true; it's altogether beside the point anyway. That's the world with which you are dealing. And if all you can do with respect to an attitude which you judge to be some way it shouldn't be is to complain about it, to refuse to accept it, and say, “Well, Lord, when you change that world around and get this person to respond the way he should be responding, then I'll accept it,” what's the use of that? We're here to transform the actual world, not the imaginary world!

In our momentary daily living we have a world with all the people inhabiting it. How are we going to handle that? Well, we say in spiritual expression—but that gets lost in the shuffle, generally, when a person begins to consider the behavior of others. Who cares! It may or may not be right, but it has no bearing in the matter whatsoever; because people are behaving the way they are behaving, and that is what we have to handle. And we're not sitting around waiting for people to behave according to our pre-established concepts—we might have a long wait! And what would be the point anyway? Would the world be a better place if everybody behaved according to our concepts, do you think? I very much doubt it. It would probably be far more confused than it is. So we accept what the Lord brings to us—whatever it is. And our stature will be revealed by the way we handle the thing. How are we going to handle it? If the only thing we can think of doing is to complain about it and to blame the Lord for bringing this circumstance—it shouldn't be this way—then of what earthly value are we? Certainly no heavenly value.

To reach a point where we can accept our individual worlds exactly the way they are enables us collectively to accept the larger world exactly the way it is. But if we haven't been able to accept our smaller worlds we're certainly not going to be in position to accept the larger world in the way that it should be accepted. Our attitude toward this larger world will be exactly the same as our attitude toward the smaller world. And we'll see all those things out there worthy of complaint. And if it so happens that one has a task to perform beyond the confines of the structure of concepts, what are you going to do out there? Just put up with it? “Well, this is the world you know; one has to do one's best there, but you can't really accomplish anything, because of the behavior of all these people—it's ridiculous.” Well, I'm sure it is, but what are you going to do about it? How is your behavior? Ridiculous too!

Now let us see this again from the standpoint of what has been called focalization, because we all carry points of focus. Focalization is usually looked at simply from the standpoint of standing underneath something and looking up. Obviously there is a need to have right orientation in the upward sense, and this is a first necessity—one that is rather neglected very often in the practical experience of daily living. But there is also the fact that one is a point of focus relative to a world for which one is responsible—a populated world. There is no one who does not have a higher point of focus. Some may have looked at me and said “Well, you don't.” Don't I? Do you think we'd have any ministry if I didn't? We may look upon this matter from the standpoint of personal freedom, which is what usually causes the difficulties with human beings. It isn't a matter of personal freedom in the human sense, is it? In that regard I trust I have no personal freedom whatsoever! And I trust the same is true of you. I don't think it altogether is, at times; but certainly I'm sure that all of you have the idea that it should be so anyway. It needs to be actually so. I have no personal freedom, really. Whatever is required from the standpoint of the expression and action of the spirit of God, that must be. Well, where did personal freedom go, then? What is it that needs to be done? On that basis there's no more freedom in the human sense—none at all. And if we attempt to exercise freedom in that way, we violate our integrity every time. And violating our integrity we set in motion a cycle of experience which will bring back the results thereof. No one can violate their integrity with impunity. We know the Law works—at least we say we know it. As you sow, so also do you reap.

How about angelic freedom? Do you think in our operation on earth we have complete angelic freedom? No, not at all. Obviously in the world the way it is angels are very much restricted. They're very much restricted by the exercise of human freedom. But we may see that angelically speaking the extent of freedom which we may experience relates to the extent of response that is being offered. If very little response is being offered out of our world, there is very little freedom for that fulness of angelic expression which is available to be expressed. Because of the very restricted response when the Master was on earth, what He was able to offer was also very restricted. Human beings have thought of it as marvelous: look at all those miracles! But in actual fact He was able to offer virtually nothing in comparison to what was available, simply by reason of the fact that there was a lack of the response which would have permitted it.

Now we all find ourselves in this same situation. Does this mean that angelically speaking we're always going to be frustrated? There are lots of people who indulge in frustration. They find themselves in a situation which does not conform to their expectations and so they decide to be frustrated. But it was their own decision. Nobody can frustrate you but you. Nobody! Do you agree with that point, I wonder—well, you can nod your heads—but do you agree? That's the question. Because every time you indulge in feeling frustrated you are saying that someone else is responsible for it. There is no need to be frustrated. No one needs to be frustrated. I suppose in a sense I've had opportunity above all others to be frustrated—by the nonsense that has been dished up, and dished up, and dished up over the years, quite unnecessarily, because those concerned simply rejected the abundance of spiritual provision that had been made. They acted as though it didn't exist. They acted as though I'd never said anything, never offered anything. I would delightedly acknowledge that there is far more genuine substance evident in the expression of some now than has been so in the past. And this is revealed in various ways—revealing how much of the real thing there is. All I'm concerned about and all that we all should be concerned about is the substance. And if the substance isn't there, why bother? I am interested in the extent of substance I have to work with. If substance is very thin, then I don't have much to work with. The same is true of all of us in our various fields of responsibility. If we don't have much to work with, it may seem that it is excusable for us to be frustrated. But if we accept that excuse we are accepting the fact of our own failure. There is no necessity to be frustrated; only if we choose it.

So the government of our collective world of responsibility is dependent upon the extent to which we are handling effectively our individual worlds of responsibility, the ones that are right next to us, the ones which require our administration day by day. I have something of an overall view of the extent of government that must put in an appearance and consequently I am somewhat appalled (but not frustrated) in observing how ineffective and childish so much of the handling of the personal government of the individual world is. And I look at that and say, “My heavens. If that was transferred to the greater world, God help the world!” I am sure that you are aware of these things in the behavior of others. But we need to have it a little closer to home than that—to make sure that spiritual authority is being exercised in one's present world exactly the way it is; and we're not trying to impose something on everybody to make it conform to some bright concept that we may have. We are quite willing to accept the world the way it is, to provide the authority of spiritual expression in it, to handle it intelligently, and to let the chips fall where they may! We don't know what is going to come out of it.

The new world is born out of the old. The substance of the new world is the substance that was present in the old. We're not going to receive a downpour of substance from some other planet so that we are able to have a new world. The substance is already here, obviously; nothing wrong with the substance, whether we are thinking of it in terms of spiritual substance, mental substance, the substance of spiritual expression, or the substance which is available at each vibrational level of this Whole Holy World. Now the substance at the higher vibrational levels has been pretty thin in human experience, but it is that substance that allows the fire of transformation to reach the substance of the lower vibrational levels, which ultimately includes the physical level. We are concerned, then, with the generation of the essential substance, first of all of connection, rising up to the higher vibrational levels so that we may be in position to exercise the essential authority at the lower vibrational levels. “I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” At a certain point in the story of Job there was a facility available on earth by which these words could be spoken. Of course we do not see it merely in terms of those particular words, but we see the spirit that is being conveyed. Here is spiritual authority. Here is government. “I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” No more freedom insofar as human nature is concerned.

As we well recognize, human nature doesn't like that and is going to battle to the last drop of its existence. But our concern is to be in position collectively to provide the essential government which will encompass the whole world. And we provide that essential government for the whole world because we have individually exercised the authority in our own individual worlds. Exercising that authority is not done in human nature ways. While we see this authority and there is going to be response, the way that is brought to bear is not an imposition. It is simply that regardless of what the circumstance is, whether it conforms with our expectations or not, we are going to handle it rightly with the authority of spiritual expression. We deal with the things that come up on this basis. We're not looking around to find someone to clobber. Those who resist spiritual expression will clobber themselves; we don't need to clobber them. You have clobbered yourselves, I'm sure, in times past. Probably on the occasion you thought it was someone else doing it. But no one clobbers you—you clobber yourself, on the basis of the way that you are handling the particular circumstance. What is your attitude towards it? This will depend a great deal on your sense of stature.

Most human beings feel themselves to be so miniscule. Everything is greater than they are. They're constantly fighting for survival against all these hostile, overwhelming forces—forces of evil, in their view. It has been so in our view too. What is our stature then? Until we consciously become aware of the fact that we're much bigger than our circumstances, we will not have the right attitude toward our circumstances. We will always tend to be under the circumstances. Well, that's government by the circumstances—of us. But we are there to offer the government, and if we offer it in spiritual expression, the substance that is present in that world has no alternative but to respond. It was created to do that.

Now human nature has come into the picture, it's true. And it's all around, frantically endeavoring to hold this substance in whatever structures it is presently composing. There are those who wish to sustain the status quo, and in various ways everybody wants to sustain a certain status quo. Even when it comes to matters of revolution and so on, this is so; it's only a transfer of substance from one status quo to another. That's all that happens; nothing has been achieved whatsoever in the true sense. So it isn't a matter of getting into a battle in that regard. We know very well that human nature is fighting for its existence, so to speak. Satan has been cast into the earth and he's struggling to keep the substance which is present in what has been his domain, in the structures where it is—including the structures of human forms, because human nature is present in each individual human form, and there is an endeavor to try to keep it in whatever the structure may be, even if it's a very distorted structure. We are concerned that the substance should be transformed and provide the means by which the emerging forms according to the true design of spirit may appear. It's the same substance. There is some purification of this substance needed. It is needed certainly as this substance relates to what is present in human forms. There's a great deal more substance in the world than is present in human forms, but what is present in human forms needs to be purified at each level of substance. The final purification relates to the flesh body, which human beings try to project out as though it was the first thing that needed to be dealt with. Well, it's not the first thing that needs to be dealt with except occasionally when there is an emergency, so that something can remain in form and continue the process that is needed.

There is this transformation to occur, a purifying of substance at each level, so that it may be available for spirit to create the true forms—the new heaven and the new earth. But it's the same substance. This requires that we operate on the basis of spiritual expression so that we are never stymied by the antics of human nature in its endeavor to hold this substance in rigid structured forms of its own making. We see this happening, and it may be successful for a while—things hold together for a little. We see things beginning to crumble a little more all the time, but here is human nature on hand, desperately clutching its familiar structures; and in clutching those structures it holds on to the substance which, when there is spiritual expression brought to bear in relationship to it, is seeking to get out of those structures. So obviously there's going to be a state of conflict and confusion within the structures, whatever they may be, whether they are the collective structures that human beings have made on earth or whether they are merely individual human bodies. If the individual is subject to human nature he is trying desperately to hold on to that, whereas the substance is seeking to move into the new design, whether it be these collective patterns within the present world or whether it be the individual human bodies. The substance of our own bodies now is delighted to move into, to fill out in form, the new vibrational design that is coming into the picture by reason of spiritual expression.

But we're not thinking of this in terms of our own bodies. We are thinking of this in terms of the larger body and of the field of responsibility which is immediately around us. Here the substance that is present in our fields of responsibility, no matter who is doing what, is quite willing, quite ready, to conform to the design which we provide in our spiritual expression of living. And that will create stresses and strains in our environment, certainly. Those who complain about the state of affairs in their environment: that this person, that person, is not behaving the way they should, are exhibiting a lack of faith or trust in the Divine Design; a lack of trust in spiritual expression, in the creative power of God brought to bear in the situation by reason of one's own expression. And it's certainly not brought to bear if one is not accepting things as they are, if one's complaining about them, objecting to them. But the very moment there is an openness in this regard, and what is there is received, and one's expression is based in what one knows spiritually speaking—and no one here can say that they don't know; we all know—so that when it is brought to bear, there is the essence of the design which will take form as the substance moves in the creative cycles and becomes available to fill it out. No one is going to be able to say when it is going to become available or how it is going to become available, but there is an assurance that it is not only going to become available, but is becoming available now. And whatever begins to move on this basis is part of the movement of the substance to conform with the new design. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. It's not a matter of saying “Well, now I'm going to make the salvation of the Lord come.” How? Stand still and see it, because it's coming in your own spiritual expression. You don't have to manipulate things to get them in order. You wouldn't know how to get them in order on that basis anyhow.

Here we are handling our little individual worlds—and if we have any stature at all surely we can do that much! If we see the insignificance of these little worlds which are present with us now, relative to that greater world for which we are responsible, and we know that we're going to have to have the stature to handle that—well this is duck soup, isn't it. It's nothing. Absolutely nothing. And yet what a big fuss and turmoil human beings have made out of it all. Oh, such big things! Such tremendous troubles and problems and all these difficulties. Isn't it awful what we have to put up with! Snap of the fingers! Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we find it to be so when we handle it in spiritual expression. And when we are faithful in a few things then we are capable of ruling over many things. The Lord's not holding anything back. He'll give us all we can handle. But let us learn to handle what He's already given us before we expect more. I've heard various ones at various times say “Well, I think I have a greater capacity to handle more. When am I going to be allowed to do this?” No one's stopping that person, at all, ever. But what are they going to handle? Some imaginary world out there, the world of their expectations? Or the actual world right where they are? And how balky people tend to be in that regard. Oh, they're so great and big, they have tremendous stature when it comes to that great world out there, but they're little pygmies, hardly discernible, in the world where they now are.

So we encompass our worlds and we find ourselves in position to do it. There never has been any reason why we shouldn’t do it—only reasons that we ourselves have been busy thinking up. So when we do that we begin to have some real substance—substance which gives us stature and which becomes the substance of action in a larger sense, in this collective sense. How much substance of action do we really have? How much substance of action do you individually have in the handling of your individual worlds? The whole is found to be greater than the sum of the parts. In this sense we discover that what seems to be so mathematically speaking is not necessarily so. Two and two do not necessarily make only four.

I am thankful that there has been an increasing generation of the substance of connection—substance of action goes with it, because that's a spill‑over from the substance of connection. The cup runs over. But it is in the field of our action, of our handling of our affairs, momentarily, that the reality of spiritual government begins to emerge. And as we do this we suddenly begin to find here is the government in our hands collectively. And it encompasses, includes, far more than we had deemed possible even in our imagination. The actual thing is obviously a lot more substantial than the imaginary thing. So we find the actual thing may begin to emerge into our experience because our spiritual expression engenders response—the substance is coming one way or another. There are some human beings who are willing that the substance of their bodies should come along, for instance. And there are those who are not so willing but the substance of their bodies is going to come along—maybe not in that form, but one way or another it's going to come along. We find so much substance of all kinds beyond human bodies which offers itself. And there are those human beings who bring substance without knowing what they're doing. In fact, the vast majority of response is unconscious. It is a very little pinnacle that comes out in consciousness. If there is that pinnacle coming out in consciousness, yours and others, it is because there is vastly more of the mountain underneath. The mountain can't have a crest unless there's a mountain. So the response—what is needful is there and is coming—it's coming and will be made available to us just to the extent that we are capable of handling it, just to the extent of our stature.

Let us concern ourselves that our stature should be constantly expanding in its inclusiveness. It certainly isn't expanding, rather it's shrinking, if we object to the things that come to us. We're saying, “No, no, no, I can't stand anymore. I've got enough now. This little piece here is quite enough for me.” Would we ever get anything done on that basis? Of course not. We handle what is present and we let our encompassment expand because our stature expands and we acknowledge the fact of our stature; we don't keep denying it. We don't deny the Lord. And so here we are, continuing in our cycles of generation, that our cycles of generation may be perfect. Let us be big enough to handle our circumstances. The Lord has not reduced our stature. If it has been reduced we did it.

© Emissaries of Divine Light