To Receive The King
Martin Exeter May 4, 1986
The world is enfolded in the atmosphere of Home by reason of the Spirit of Home which we know. This is the Climate of the Garden. There are some other words that might be used also: the Kingdom of Heaven. The invitation that has been extended is to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not suggested that anyone should try to get it for themselves, or try to build it somehow. Both these attempts are futile anyway, simply because the Kingdom of Heaven—the Garden, the true Home—already exists and already is at hand. All that is necessary is to receive it. The invitation that has been offered to us, and which is offered by us to others, is to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. It has long been at hand, waiting to be received.
One cannot receive it without receiving the King of the Kingdom. It is not really possible to receive the King of the Kingdom without first receiving he that comes in His name. This was rather plainly stated in one of the Gospels: “Ye shall not see me henceforth, til ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” As we well know, He came some considerable time ago and was rejected. In spite of all the protestations of Christianity, He has not yet been received, because He can only be received through the one who comes in the name of the Lord. “Ye shall not see me henceforth, til ye shall say, Blessed is he,” acceptable is he, “who comes in the name of the Lord.” I am come in the name of my King—so is it also for you. The one who comes in the name of the Lord must be received if the King is to be known.
The King is known on earth through His body of incarnation. This body is composed from all of you, and others as well. Only as the character and the quality of the King is the consistent expression in living of those who compose His body is He factually present, incarnate on earth, capable of being known that way. But the body puts in an appearance only by reason of the fact that those who compose it have the attitude, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” so that the character and the quality of the King is accepted on this basis. This character is steadfast. To be aware of the fact of steadfastness seemingly requires a certain length of time, and so a certain length of time has been provided. Nothing impossible is expected of anyone. The provision is always adequately made. This is portrayed by the words, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And so, as there are those who in fact are saying, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” and are consequently receiving the spirit of the creative process into their own experience of living, the body of the King takes form and becomes available for the expression of the Spirit of the King on earth. All human beings on the face of the earth have received the invitation to receive the King. Few have been willing to do so, because it is impossible to receive the King without first receiving the One who comes in His name. On this basis the body forms. This is the body of the King, designed by Him to allow for the essential creative expression of His Spirit on earth.
These words are spoken to those who are in position to receive them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost—the Spirit of Truth—into the expression of your momentary living. The evidence of this expression is steadfastness. It is Love. There is meekness and gentleness, but there is authority. Nothing is ever imposed. Those who have felt that they were somehow being imposed upon have been imposing their own concepts upon themselves, for the King is not a king of imposition. If He had been, do you think that we would still be present here, or that mankind would still exist on the face of the earth? It is obvious that there has been a freedom for human beings to do as they please. Of course there is something that comes with that; they must also receive the results of doing as they please. But that is not an imposition, as some have tried to make it seem: “Why does God do all this to us?” He doesn't! As human beings we do it to ourselves. We behave the way we do and we reap the consequences, individually and collectively.
Clearly, a change of experience is most necessary. We have, some of us over many, many years, been sharing that changed experience, at times perhaps rather reluctantly. But for those whose hearts are open and yielded to receive the one who comes in the name of the Lord, there was no other way to go. That may sometimes have seemed like an imposition. But we found that we couldn't help ourselves from moving in the way that was offered, that we were invited to share. So there are those who have had this experience, and no doubt there will be more. There are others who have resisted it and been uncomfortable in consequence, and found reasons for judgment and condemnation, which is the usual human way. As the body of the King takes form and the Spirit of the King finds increasing clarity of expression through that body, there is the evidence of authority and the power of Love. Love is a drawing power. It draws all hearts that are willing to yield to it. It draws human beings the world around toward the place where they may come into position to receive the King.
This power of Love, also, is the power which in the creative processes dissolves human nature. Those who cling to their human nature find themselves being dissolved, and it becomes increasingly uncomfortable. It is very clear that the world is in a very uncomfortable state, simply because this is happening. If we are aware of why it is happening and of our own part in permitting the happening to occur, then surely, on the basis of any integrity that may be present, one cannot help oneself from doing what is needful, whether it promotes one's own human ego or not. Of course it doesn't, because that is what is passing away, that is what is being dissolved. The King has all power in heaven and on earth, and what needs to happen in the creative process will happen. No human being can stop it—no great numbers of human beings can stop it.
So we share in the process, because it is the coming of the Kingdom. “Thy kingdom come.” The attitude is one, then, of receiving it. “Thy will be done”—certainly not my will as a human being, certainly not what I want as a human being— probably not what I even expect! Let it be the will of the King. The will of the King is characterized by the creative process. Yield to the creative process. This is the Word of the King through His body, but His body necessarily must be the instrument which speaks that Word. It might be said that this has been the word of the King always, but there has been no means of speaking it in a collective sense within the body of mankind. There was a means of speaking it through one individual long ago, and that Word was spoken, so there is a precedent in that sense; but now for what occurs through this body of the King there is no precedent other than the individual one.
All power in heaven and on earth is in the hands of the King—and finally the intransigent human character is being brought to point. I suppose it could be said, “Yield or else.” Is that an imposition? No, it's merely the end result of human behavior. If human beings had not behaved the way they have, this end result wouldn't have come; but because of that it's coming—in fact it's here. So we share an understanding of the reason for the presence of the body of the King, and we have an awareness, to whatever extent in our own living, of the quality and character of the Spirit of the King in expression through His body. Before that light the shadows flee away. The shadows are what characterize human nature. One either flees away with the shadows or one is willing to let them go. If there is a willingness to let them go, the kingdom is received and the King comes into His body to live, to move, to have His being on earth.
The world of mankind is looked upon as being real, when in fact it is a fantasy. The world of the King is looked upon as being unreal, fantastic, when in fact it is the reality. “Choose ye this day” is being said to the whole body of mankind: Will you live in the fantasy or in the reality? It might also be said that each brings its own reward. But there is no other choice; there is nowhere else to go. If you fall between two stools, it comes to the same thing as refusing to accept the Kingdom and the King into His world. “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” If those who dwell in the earth refuse to receive the King, they are immediately superfluous; and while a considerable length of time—I don't think any human consciousness is able to measure it—has been provided for the children of men to repent, thus far they have not done so. Now the end comes, the ultimate result of human intransigence and the insistence upon existing within the state of human nature.
We rejoice this day, in this company assembled in many places on earth, to acknowledge the King and to receive His character into our own living, that we may live, amongst other things, that we may live and not find ourselves superfluous. Generation after generation human beings have insisted upon being superfluous. We are not concerned with what may or may not happen to our physical forms, but we are concerned to let our physical forms, while life yet remains, be the vehicle for the Life of the King. On this basis His Body forms. According to the story, there was the experience of resurrection insofar as His body was concerned before. That may be seen as a precedent, related to one individual. But the Body of the King is not one individual; the Body of the King is, rightly, Man restored. So we share in understanding the way the creative process works, and let ourselves be aligned with it, participating in the forming of the Body of the King on earth through which His Kingdom may come.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
