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My Words Shall Not Pass Away
Martin Exeter October 18, 1987 Glen Ivy, CA
An hour or so ago Mike McCann passed away here at Glen Ivy. He was Pam Gray’s father, so we enfold Pam particularly this morning. He was also a longstanding friend of many, providing a link with Uranda out of the past. In an event such as this we use the words, “He passed away.” Certainly the identity of the one that we knew as Mike McCann is no more present with us on earth. This identity was attached to the physical form. It was said, long ago, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” In this instance the identity attached to the physical form of Mike McCann has passed away; in this sense the earth has passed away. By the same token the heaven has not yet passed away. It is well that we should see these things clearly, because it has become a human habit over the millennia to pass away. Everybody does it. The earth passes away first but the heaven, in this instance, not yet. Various vibrational attachments have been woven over the years with whoever it might be—in this instance Mike McCann. The one who incarnated in this form, the truth, has not passed away. The vibrational heaven is primarily the responsibility of that one, but we ourselves have a responsibility also. We may see this as relating to Mike, but it is applicable to any. The human attitude toward such events tends to make the passing of the heaven difficult. Because of the attachments that have been woven, emotions become involved and there is the tendency usually, in the worldly sense, to feel bound to pour one’s life force into bewailing what has occurred. Such an attitude is of no real value and is consequent upon the self-centeredness in the person who may feel bereft and emotionally involved. The experience is not appreciated and usually it doesn’t evoke thankfulness, which in fact it should. We may in this instance be very thankful for the life of Mike McCann, but we are keenly aware that there would have been no life of Mike McCann if it was not for the one who was incarnate in that form. The same is true of each of us.
The vibrational substance of the heaven, when the passing of the physical form takes place, is primarily the responsibility of the incarnate one, the incarnate one who has not passed away. But all who have any vibrational attachment have a responsibility too. Those attachments may be symbolized, perhaps, by what have been termed grave-clothes. They need to be folded carefully and put aside, so that the vibrational heaven is not fastened into the earth. As I say, it usually is, because of the emotions of those who were related to the one who has passed away, and those emotional attachments hold on to the substance, the substance of heaven. This is why it could be said that mankind is so ghost-ridden; they cling to the ghost substance which needs to pass away. Heaven needs to pass away. It passes away, one might say, in two ways. It passes away because those who remain on earth release it and they’re not constantly dwelling on memories, for instance, which evoke emotion. But this substance also passes away because the incarnate one is in position to handle that end of it. I suppose it could be described as a process of ascension. The more that human beings tend to hang on to their end of the substance, the more difficult it is to allow for an easy and natural and joyful ascension of the substance for which the incarnate one is responsible.
We need, always, to see the responsibility that we carry, first of all to be thankful, that this process can be allowed to work out. At the moment it is the only one available; the physical form passes away, the earth passes away. The vibrational form, the heaven, needs to pass away also. Those who are living on earth may, decently and in order, relinquish their end of it, so that they don’t hang on to emotionally induced memories but are willing to let the heaven pass away in the way that it passes away. From our standpoint the concern is to let the heaven ascend, so it passes away. We don’t have any particular responsibility for that aspect of it; the incarnate one has. But we can delay the process by hanging on to our end. So we rejoice in this particular passing, and undertake to release the woven connections that any of us may have with the heaven aspect of Mike McCann. I have used this opportunity to speak of these things because I felt that Pam was quite willing that I should, in order that there might be some awareness of the responsibility that we all carry in this regard with respect to whomever, that we may act sensibly and we may reveal that our identity is not primarily in the heaven and the earth but in the incarnate one who is present, certainly as long as life remains.
My concern over the years has been that all should come to the point of being identified with this incarnate one. I couldn’t do very much about that if I didn’t let it happen, in whatever measure, in my own experience; so I assumed the responsibility in this regard back along the way. Such responsibilities don’t come suddenly, regardless of external events. There is always a cycle of unfoldment.
This was true of me — it is true of you.
But the intent of the unfoldment is to bring the individual to the point where his or her identity is centered in the incarnate one. When that is so, what is present in the earthly sense, in the sense of the heaven and the earth, has no choice. Some have, on occasion in various ways, felt that I should speak differently or do things differently in order to fulfill my responsibility. No one really knows what that would be except me, because it is my responsibility and nobody else’s. But I have sometimes been given direct advice as to what I should say in service, for instance. Some have approached it a little more gently!
But from the standpoint of my heaven and earth, that has no choice but to deliver what spirit would deliver, and it is this delivery of spirit that gets the job done. The job isn’t done by human opinions as to what should be said or what shouldn’t be said, how things should be approached and so on. I always look at the individual who makes such suggestions and ask myself, “Well, what have you proven out yourself in this regard?” and usually the reply would be, “Not much.” So I trust that nobody can seduce me from providing the expression of the spirit that is needful, as it is needful. This comes to a particular point in service. That’s why I don’t write out my sermon beforehand and read it to you. You’re spared that: you should be very thankful! I say what I say because I can’t say anything else, regardless of any pressures that may be brought to bear to try to get me to say anything else. Thus far they have been of no avail. This is something that must come to point in all of us. There is one spirit, but it finds its own expression through the individual, each one, when human opinions get out of the way. I’ve shared this expression over many years with those who were willing to participate with me. I have no interest in trying to share it with those who are not concerned to share it with me.
So we have permitted what could be done by spirit to come to pass. There is another factor in this. I have been very much aware of what spirit would seek to release in expression at times when the substance available to accommodate that release was not sufficient to receive it. Remember a statement made long ago: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” The spirit is always very practical. It utilizes what factual substance there is available. Generally speaking the full release and flow of spirit is not possible, because the substance is not there to accommodate it. Over the years we have been generating more substance together, so that the more direct and greater release of the spirit could become possible. This has been my concern, that we might all participate in that release because we all had sufficient spiritual substance, heavenly substance, to accommodate it.
There are those who have felt the spirit moving in themselves with great power, and regardless of anything they were going to deliver that power. We have some hellfire-and-damnation sermons on occasion over the radio, I notice. But it seems that most don’t know how to handle this. The attitude may be, “If spirit tells me to say this I’m going to say it, come hell or high water!” I think spirit is a little more delicate than that, and it is always very cognizant of the actual state of affairs, the actual extent to which there is spiritual substance available to accommodate the spirit. Of course one might question, in some of these sermons which put in an appearance, as to whether they really are evidence of the movement of the spirit of truth. Where the spirit of truth does find expression it does so in a reasonable way, and that reasonable way is largely based in the extent of spiritual substance that is available to accommodate the spirit of truth. So what is released into expression is restricted by that factor. What may be said is not, for instance, what I might be capable of saying, but what is capable of being accommodated by those who are sharing this release of spirit with me. So I put the responsibility on you! That doesn’t take it away from me, but it is something that has to be shared if the creative process is to be allowed to work.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,” it is said. This simply portrays the fact that the creative process does the creating; and it creates the heaven and the earth. It is not said that “in the beginning God created the earth,” which is the way most people think of it, but “the heaven and the earth,” which are inseparable, except that they have become separated in the consciousness of human beings. That is the only place they’re separate. That separation which has occurred in the consciousness of human beings is enacted, generation after generation, at the time of passing away, when the earth passes away but the heaven not yet. Then the heaven passes away finally, but the truth remains. The truth in this instance was the identity of the incarnate one, individually speaking. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” The Word of Truth, the truth of the individual, the angel, does not pass away. We not only see this theoretically—one may accept a belief in this regard—but actually experience the fact because one accepts angelic identity and sees all that is going on from that perspective. This has been my concern over the years, that there would be those who accepted the angelic identity so that we might share the same perspective. What is seen then is what the fact is.
There have been those who have, as I indicated before, taken me a little to task because I have spoken so much about human nature and all the peculiarities of human nature. The human idea very often is that you should leave that alone; as long as you’re paying attention to it it’ll be there. But if you leave it alone it’ll just vanish. Well it hasn’t done that yet. It isn’t the way it works. If it is a matter of human nature looking at human nature, then everybody is in the trap. Human nature looking at human nature immediately begins to become concerned about it. It judges and condemns, accuses, and all the rest. That’s what happens when human nature looks at human nature. I am not encouraging human nature to look at human nature. Nothing is gained at all by that. It is because human nature is looked at by the human nature of the individual that there is a certain amount of discomfort then and a certain amount of objection to the fact that I call a spade a spade. But if it is the angelic perspective, that’s the way it is, and one sees that. One is not subject to it; one is not controlled by it; one sees the fact of it. But unless one sees the fact of it, one is not associated with angelic perspective. My whole concern has been to provide what I might to assist all concerned to assume the angelic perspective and to see what is what, consequently—not so that one would be troubled by it; only human nature would be troubled by that. The angel is not in the least troubled by it. It’s all unreal; it’s all in the process of passing away.
The angelic perspective must come with respect to what is present in human nature if what is present in human nature is to pass away in a creative fashion—that is, the person still sticks around. Human nature will pass away anyhow. But if it is allowed to go while life remains in the heaven and the earth, then finally the restoration is on its way. So anyone who is troubled by the rather dismal sight of the state of human nature may be assured that they are looking at human nature from the standpoint of human nature. But looking at human nature from the standpoint of the angel, that’s just the fact; that’s the way things are right now. And it is because there is an angel present, with a heaven capable of accommodating the expression of that angel, that human nature is in the process of being dissolved.
We come again to where we belong: in angelic identity, no longer in the identity of human nature. To the extent that this is the fact the former things have passed away, and there is no more death. We have been looking at this passing-away business, and it does not impress us as being an awful thing. Death is no longer there, because the angel didn’t die. And if the identity is in the angel and there is angelic perspective therefore, there was no more death insofar as identity was concerned. The false self that has been self-maintained by human beings passes away. That is unreal. That’s not a tragedy; it is cause for thankfulness. The way things are now, human beings call it death. They try to modify that a little by saying he or she “passed away”—it sounds better—rather than saying, “They’re dead.” But what’s wrong with that? It depends on where the identity is. It depends, for each one, on who I am.
We come together at particular times of service, for instance, when there is a special opportunity to participate in the experience of angelic identity. To the extent that we do that we can look at anything; it doesn’t bother us. We know the appalling state of affairs in human nature. We know what that is; we have had personal experience in that regard. We see it all around us. Heretofore we may have seen it simply from the standpoint of human nature, when it looks terrible, and how are we going to deal with this, and this is awful! And we have to organize and do this and do that and do the other thing. That’s human nature looking at human nature. We are going to reform it! We are well aware that that doesn’t work.
But we may come to the same place of angelic experience, where all is seen then in angelic perspective. You can handle anything. It’s very easy to handle something that is actually unreal. Where is the fuss? That seems impossible to human nature, and is. My concern has always been to encourage the acceptance of angelic identity and consequently to participate in angelic perspective. All I have spoken about is what is seen from the standpoint of angelic perspective. If one interprets that from the standpoint of human nature, well it’s uncomfortable. But if one rises up and accepts the same positioning, the same stance, then it’s all perfectly natural and we can talk about anything that needs to be talked about—we don’t gossip just for the sake of talking. If there is a need to consider something, we consider it, but from the angelic perspective. That is always my approach, but it has been interpreted sometimes otherwise, in which case I need to be corrected and told to behave some other way!
I’m not going to. There is only one way insofar as I am concerned, insofar as all of us are concerned, I’m sure. At this point, that is the one way. And, incidentally, I was most delighted in what was offered in the service yesterday evening. Those who took part revealed the angelic stance, everything looked at from that identity. And it’s wonderful. It’s just great. But looked at from the human-nature standpoint, oh my! It’s disaster. Yes, disaster for human nature, but no loss. The truth remains. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” If they are my words then I shall not pass away, and each one can accept this for themselves. But it must be done. One can talk about it, one can look at it, one can see all that, reach a point where one sees that’s all very logical—“Yes, that’s right”—and so on, but unless it’s done it doesn’t mean a thing. One has to do it for oneself. We do deliberately accept human-nature identity; we insist on it, as a rule. Human beings do, the world around. Now the opportunity is here to accept angelic identity, but to know what that means one has to do it. Human beings are expert at theorizing about things, but let’s do it, do it together. I thank God that there is evidence that there are those who are doing it and, as I say, it is just wonderful. It is all cause for thanksgiving.
I rejoice as we share an understanding of these things to the extent that our living has generated the substance to accommodate it. Our living—that means our doing: our thinking, our feeling, our action. What are one’s thoughts? Are they the usual variety? Or do we insist that the thought be true, and not the usual human-nature meanderings? If the thought is true, the word will probably be true too. And then there are emotions, aren’t there? We get tied up with this and with that, emotionally speaking. It is always quite possible to say, “Stop it! This is ridiculous. I don’t subscribe to these emotions anymore. To hell with them!”—it’s where they belong anyway. So they pass away. Human nature passes away. Wonderful! Human identity passes away. Oh yes, we carry around a name; it’s useful. We have numbers and so on these days—we’re in the computer! But the computer doesn’t know anything. If the computer doesn’t know anything how can it tell us anything? Yet all ears are cocked to computers these days, as though some great salvation is going to come out of a computer. But there was always that old saying—I don’t hear it so much these days—“Garbage in, garbage out.” Anything that has been put into a computer has been put into it by a human being. So out comes human nature. Everybody listens to that.
But we share a new identity, a new heaven and a new earth in consequence. We describe it as angelic identity. That’s as good a word as any. It doesn’t mean anything until we have accepted it and experience it. Then we don’t need a word to describe it, because that is what I am. We move with assurance in the natural unfoldment of the creative process, as we abide in the truth which does not pass away.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
