The Magic Of Thankfulness

from

The  Magic  of  Thankfulness

Martin Cecil   September 30, 1979  a.m.

Only to the extent that we do worship God can we handle our spiritual responsibilities. We have some awareness of what the nature of those responsibilities is, and our handling of them springs from the fact of our worship of God. This worship of God implies a certain experience of unification between ourselves and with God. Anything that human beings may endeavor to generate on their own has little consequence; it produces and multiplies confusion. The world is full of confusion in consequence. It is our responsibility, spiritually speaking, to allow this confusion to be dissolved. We have to use words, and if there is any reality back of the word God then presumably we would need to use the word God. Our concern is not particularly with systems of belief but rather with whatever the reality is which we may experience in our own living day by day and, in a particular sense now, as it comes to focus by reason of this gathering. I trust that all abide in agreement, the agreement that our only meaning, that our only purpose, requires that we worship God.

It is evident that the universe is operational. Things are the way they are in the universe. This little planet upon which we dwell is a part of that greater operational unit. There is a way by which the universe operates. The operation of the universe springs from the fact of that reality indicated by the use of the word God. We need to be very careful that we do not imagine we understand what we’re talking about when we use the word God. We may have a consciousness of the fact of a reality which goes beyond anything that we are capable of observing in the dimensional sense—we are considering an undimensional state when we use the word God. Dimensionlessness is virtually meaningless to the human intellect. Dimensions of some sort are necessary to the experience of what human beings know mentally speaking. Therefore if there is something beyond the dimensional world the human mind doesn’t know anything about it and, incidentally, can’t know anything about it. However there may be a recognition of the necessity of something beyond the dimensional world if the dimensional world is to exist. What that is may be defined by using the word God.

We have recognized that there must be some sort of vibrational substance which allows the connection to be made between the operational universe and what is spoken of as God. Even from the mental standpoint this has been recognized as a requisite. For instance, electromagnetic radiation coming from the sun is thought of, sometimes, in terms of waves. If there are waves there must be a medium through which they can be transmitted. There are waves in the ocean; there couldn’t be waves in the ocean if it wasn’t for the water. There are sound waves in the air; but there couldn’t be sound waves, we couldn’t hear sound, if it wasn’t for the air. By the same token, whatever it is that proceeds from God needs a medium of transmission; at least this is the way it looks to the human mind. The human mind thinks in terms of form, in symbols. It doesn’t really ever see the reality. It may see what symbolizes the reality.

So there is whatever it is that comes from God. We call it the spirit of God—which is essential to the operational fact of the universe. We can think of the spirit of God in terms of waves. There is the necessity then for a medium for the transmission of those waves. Seeing that the universe is operational, that medium must already be in place. We can therefore, using our imagination, recognize that there is the necessity of a substantial medium of some kind, capable of transmitting spiritual waves, capable of operating the universe, capable of producing all that is present in the universe. We have some sort of awareness that things don’t just happen; there is always a reason of some kind. Very often the human mind doesn’t understand or comprehend the reason. When it doesn’t understand or comprehend, it is inclined to deny the existence of whatever it is that it doesn’t understand or comprehend; but of course that is foolishness. It would be foolishness to suppose that human minds are capable of grasping the universe. After all, the human mind is relatively just a thimble; and yet it thinks of itself in rather grandiose terms.

However, we recognize then the necessity of spiritual substance capable of accommodating spirit, substance through which spirit can move with freedom—in an uninhibited manner. This substance then is present in the universe—it fills all space; but it also fills the space that is occupied by what we call physical substance. It is of such a high intensity, necessarily so, that it is capable of permeating everything. This spiritual substance is already present in the universe. The universe is operational; it’s going along quite all right. Things are not quite so happy, quite so under control, quite so as they should be, here on earth within the range of human influence. This would seem to indicate that insofar as human function is concerned human beings have very little within the scope of their own experience of this intense spiritual substance, very little to connect them up with what is present universally speaking.

We can see from this standpoint that human beings have isolated themselves. I think this was described rather accurately as being put out of the garden. This is spoken of in religious circles sometimes as the fall of man, man putting himself out of the garden, disconnecting himself from this universal spiritual substance and endeavoring to operate without it. The result is a multiplying mess which will get messier and messier the longer that human beings continue to try to operate without the substance. We have seen the necessity of generating spiritual substance, generating it at all levels so that it may reach to this highest or most intense level of spiritual substance, thereby connecting us up with the immense mass of spiritual substance that fills the whole universe. There is no shortage of that substance insofar as the universe is concerned. There is a shortage of it insofar as human experience is concerned, and that shortage becomes fatal in due course. Man wasn’t created to die. He has no business dying! Doesn’t that seem a reasonable proposition from the standpoint of God, particularly if man was in fact created in the image and likeness of God? He was created to live.

In order to be in position to generate the required substance, we have recognized that there is a need for certain attitudes to be taken. There are many who have seen this in theory but been a little resistant to the idea of assuming the attitudes that are required. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to undertake to experience what is necessary—because one chooses to do it—in order to generate the substance which permits the connection to be made with what is already present throughout the whole universe? Let us come out of the state of isolation. It has been wise that man should be in isolation, I think, because it’s important that he shouldn’t infect the rest of the universe. So, as it was put, he was cast out of the garden. We recognize that he merely ejected himself, and in doing so he dissipated the substance which would otherwise have kept him in the garden, connected up with the rest of the universe, doing what is required in the universal sense as a part of the whole. But in isolation all that he has done has been virtually meaningless. Our concern now is to allow the generation of the required substance which would permit the connection to be made with the universal substance so that what is true of the spirit of God may emerge within the experience of man, and not only within the experience of the whole universe but including man too.

So here we are, concerned to accept those attitudes which make possible the generation of this substance in our own momentary living. We have to live to generate the substance. If we are dead we’re not generating any substance. So there is the matter of this generation and the attitudes required—which we have considered rather thoroughly and in various ways. But there is one very important attitude which is frequently overlooked in the fact of experience. I’m sure all of you would nod your heads and say you know what this attitude is; but the question is: Does anybody do it? To know about it is one thing but to do it is another thing, to let it happen. And it is a very simple attitude. It has been repeated quite frequently and it is one of the first matters that is considered when anyone begins to draw close to what is offered through this ministry. Do you know what it is? I’m sure you do. Be thankful. Human beings are inclined to argue themselves out of being thankful. They say, “Well you can’t expect me to be thankful in this situation because of this and this and this,” and they proceed to argue themselves out of being thankful. Why go to all that trouble? Why not just be thankful? because it is this matter of thanksgiving that provides the essential means by which substance is generated and the connection is made with the intense medium which permeates the whole universe. It even permeates human beings—obviously if it permeates the whole universe it’s here—but it simply is unknown, particularly as long as a person remains unthankful.

How thankful are you? This is a question that each one may ask of him- or herself. Let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s not be dishonest about it. Let’s face the fact of the matter. Let’s look at thankfulness and forget about the criticism and all the rest, and be thankful. Why not? Or are we still going to argue ourselves out of it? Here we are together all of us now present, related to this spiritual substance. What are we going to do about it? Are we going to be very thankful that we are immediately in position to generate what is required and be connected up? There’s nothing to stop anyone; and the principal requirement is this matter of thankfulness. Well pause a minute and think about it. Perhaps you can be thankful now; it’s beautiful to be together, isn’t it, sharing these wonderful evidences of the movement of the spirit of God. Beautiful! But how about when you get out of here? What’s going to happen then? You may find that things are going wrong in your experience in some way—or what you think of as going wrong. How do you know? How do you know that it’s wrong? Relinquish all that and be thankful that we are in position in our living, through thankfulness, to generate the substance that connects us with the universal medium of spirit. And the initial spirit is love—the Spirit of Love, the substance of love.

Love emerges when there is a substance through which it can emerge. What human beings think of as love, and call love, is far from the experience of the reality of love, because human beings simply don’t have the substance for it. Here is something beyond the comprehension of human beings who are subject to the spirit of unthankfulness, in other words who find so many things to complain about, sometimes personal things: “Well, you know, it’s this arthritis that bothers me so much; I can’t be thankful for that!” Well no one’s asking you to be immediately thankful for that; be thankful for the spirit of God and the fact that in that thankfulness you can begin to generate the substance which has been missing so that you have arthritis, or whatever it is. All the things that are voids in human experience are simply the absence of the spirit of God. But the spirit of God is not absent actually; it is merely absent from the experience of the human being—absent because there has been no substance to accommodate it. Without that substance the spirit of God is just imagination, but when the substance is there, the waves are there, it begins to come through and there begins to be the experience therefore of what it is that should be finding expression in the moment. And what should be finding expression in the moment is never complaint! It is always characterized by thankfulness.

Think about it. Do any of us really belong on earth? We only belong on earth if we are associated with this substance; and if we’re not thankful, if we’re complaining and criticizing and judging all around, why are we on earth? We don’t belong. That’s why we’ve been in isolation. That’s why the whole human race has been in isolation. We can’t exist at all without the rest of the universe. We certainly couldn’t exist, most obviously so, without this planet; and this planet couldn’t exist if it weren’t a part of the solar system. It wouldn’t be very habitable, would it, if it were just floating around out there in space. But we recognize that it is a beautiful planet; it has been placed in exactly the right position—relative to the sun and relative to the other planets—so that everything is there for what should occur, except the part that human beings should be playing in the whole picture. So, the generation of substance.

It is not as though this is a new idea, is it? Thankfulness: I think it was mentioned a time or two before! And it was mentioned way, way back. Let me read something here: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” How often do you say so? How often do you come out and say, “Praise the Lord. Thank God this is the way it is”? Wouldn’t it be sensible to do that? Finally we’d begin to generate some spiritual substance and get connected up. Or isn’t that worth doing? Let us let it happen because we are willing to let it happen. We’re not constantly arguing ourselves out of it. Stupid, isn’t it? And yet it’s a human habit. Why not let the habit go? You do it by filling your experience with thankfulness and then there isn’t room for anything else. But it is something that has to be deliberately done—you take the responsibility for it. This is taking spiritual responsibility. Why not begin to share the outlook, the vision, the viewpoint, of God through His spirit which is emerging in the substance in our own experience? Then we see the way things actually are and we begin to have some stature. We begin to stand up.

We have recognized that there must be very many levels of this spiritual substance, the supreme one permeating everything else—mention has been made of seven levels in this regard. They’re not seven distinct levels; there’s a whole range of vibratory substance, rightly so. But human beings have had just a little bit right down at the bottom. The vibratory levels are vast. Obviously the highest vibratory level of substance, if it actually permeates the whole universe, is somewhat vast. And yet as human beings we wriggle around in the dust. Man has stature. He was created to have stature, in the image and likeness of God, with all these vibratory levels present so that what is true of God, undimensionally speaking, may be revealed dimensionally speaking. But it requires the whole range of substance to do it. And we’ll never allow the generation of the higher levels of vibratory substance without thankfulness. It can’t be done. Couldn’t we just stop the nonsense and decide to be thankful? so that when something comes up that we would ordinarily complain about and object to—get mad about perhaps, be irritated or whatever it is—we simply give thanks, actually do it and don’t fiddle around with the thing. Somehow this vicious circle needs to be broken.

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” We still have the opportunity! “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so”—if you are beginning to be redeemed you can say so; that is, give thanks—“whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” We might read much more in this Psalm emphasizing this matter of thankfulness: “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word”—His spirit—“and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”

If we recognize this vast sea of spiritual substance, the substance which is capable of accommodating the reality of love, the reality of God, then there also is the essence of everything, the operational design of everything, the power of operation for everything. Nowadays people are all concerned about matters of energy: “We’re running out of energy.” Are we? Probably—we fail to be thankful. The human mind just sees energy in a closed circuit. But if we see energy as relating to this universal substance, the substance is not the energy. The spirit which is accommodated by the substance is the energy. And is there any lack? None whatsoever! The lack is that human beings are disconnected from energy and all they see is a little closed circuit around them; and some of that is running out; it’s all being dissipated. But there is an unlimited source of energy once human beings have been restored to the state of man—connected up with this universal spiritual substance in which the power of spirit is present for right use. It’s not available to human beings to use in their self-centered ways; very little of it is, just the little bit that goes around and around where human beings are. But this is an unlimited source.

There are those who have, from time to time, thought about perpetual motion machines, where you can extract energy from somewhere and the energy is more than is required to operate the machine which extracts the energy. Then of course if you can do that you always have an increasing amount of energy available. There’s something true about this. The universe is a perpetual motion machine; but the idea of a perpetual motion machine which human beings can invent to use for their own purposes is something that cannot happen. There have been some forms of machine that have been invented that have had some properties in this regard, but for one reason or another they never came to anything, simply because they can’t as long as human beings are the way they are, without themselves having any substance of connection with that substance in which the energy is. Also on one occasion, I understand, there was a fellow invented a perpetual motion machine of a sort but it would only operate when he was present. Well that’s right! That’s the way it works. That’s why human beings, or man, is necessary: so that the power that is required to achieve the creative purposes of God may be allowed to appear. And there is no shortage of that! There’s only a shortage of energy for human nature self-centered purposes, that’s all. And of course it looks such a terrible thing; now everything is going to grind to a halt. I doubt if it actually will, but things may get difficult, because human beings insist that any energy they can develop should be used for their own purposes. As long as that is so it’s a leak; it just runs away.

So our concern is to make possible within the body of mankind, and therefore within the consciousness of mankind, a connection with this universal substance, therefore with the creative power, for the achievement of the purposes of God, the creative purposes of the universe, not just of this little planet. But it is related to the whole universe, and as there are those who begin to come into position, having generated this substance, to let this energy emerge, this power find expression, then the way it emerges is for the purposes of God and no longer for human purposes. It’s not fed into human purposes. The fact of unlimited power only becomes known when that power begins to move in the creative design of God. Then there’s no lack. But who is in position, now, to let it so move? Are we, do you think? Are we, if we’re still complaining about this and that and the other thing and not giving thanks? It is the experience that is important, not just the words. Anyone can be thankful in any situation if they put themselves to it, but they have to put themselves to it. That is our responsibility, that we may participate in this realm of creative action, so that the power of God may begin to emerge with increased effectiveness for the purposes of God. The purposes of God we’re not going to judge. If we start judging them we’ll start complaining about them.

So all that is done is done for the glory of God, for the fulfilment of divine purposes, and we do not presume to know how that fulfilment is going to come to pass. We don’t have it set up in our own minds all ready and if it doesn’t come the way we think it should, well we have cause for complaint. Let it come the way it’s going to come. And give thanks for it, because everything that is emerging emerges from this one source in any case and it emerges through whatever the state of consciousness may be insofar as human experience is concerned. Well let’s let that state of consciousness be clear then. Let’s let it be what it should be so that the emergence may be fitting and may create and accomplish whatever it is it should create and accomplish. We let it move in its own natural cycles, willing that it should be to the glory of God and not for our benefit, not to please us, not to make us comfortable and happy. That’s not the point at all. The point is to let the restoration of man take place; and whatever is required to do that, let it be done. Is there anyone on the face of the earth whose human mind can tell them how that’s going to be done? Certainly not! Let’s just let it happen. And we let it happen because we have decided, finally, that we are going to be thankful.

I praise the Lord, now, that we may be thankful now. I see a few happy faces here and there, thankful faces, but I also see some glum ones. Who is going actually to do it? Are we going to wait till next week! We can only do it now; we can’t do it next week. So it is thankfulness now. Praise the Lord! In this spirit of thanksgiving we may all move in oneness to let God’s will be done, to let the creative spirit and power of God emerge in action to achieve what is necessary. How that is to be done is something toward which we excitedly look, because it is done in ways that have never been known in human experience since man has been in isolation. There is always a tendency for the human mind to argue that it is impossible to do thus and so, and it always has good scientific reasons to prove it—but really they’re scientific theories. What is the fact? This we need to discover. Let us not argue ourselves out of what should naturally appear from the standpoint of the spirit of God when there is the substance of connection. Then we begin to be thankful for all the wonderful things that immediately become possible. Let’s let it work that way, to the glory of God.

© emissaries of divine light