May 31, 2020
May 27, 2020
I Am Come Into My Garden
I Am Come Into My Garden
Martin Cecil August 7, 1977 pm
“I am come into my garden.” The garden is prepared on earth by the angels of the Lord incarnate in human form. It cannot be prepared by human beings as such but by the angels of the Lord incarnate in human form, which permits the generation of the substance whereby radiation may be received on earth and understanding may increase in human consciousness on earth. We have noted that there are very specific ways by which the purposes of God may be accomplished at this level where human beings are. The purposes of God are inherent in the radiation. The radiation becomes comprehensible at the level of human consciousness when the essential spiritual substance is present. The extent of comprehension will depend upon the extent of spiritual substance and the particular levels at which it is generated. You present yourselves here this evening as angels of the Lord. The fact that there are angels present is only made apparent and meaningful because of your physical flesh and the consciousness that is present by reason of that flesh. It is through this instrument that the song of life is sung.
Light requires substance to become meaningful. Even if we consider the light that comes to us from the sun, it is the reflection of that light, that radiant light from the sun, from the surface of the earth, that causes it to be meaningful and valuable on earth. There must be substance for the reflection. We have considered the Tone of life and recognized that if this Tone is to be discerned there must be substance present in which it may sound. These are analogies of the truth. If we let it go with the analogies and insist that we understand the source of the analogies we remain ignorant. But if we allow the reality to be the experience then we know the truth. We know it not because someone told it to us—as though it could be transmitted by words, which it cannot—but because we let the light shine, because we became aware of the Tone of life by reason of the substance that has been generated by the human facility. Angelically speaking we know these things at the level of the angel but they need to be known at the level of human beings, so angels put in an appearance in human form. There are a number of those human forms sitting here this evening. I trust there is a sufficiency of angelic expression for me to assume that there are angels sitting here this evening, not just human forms. As angels you are here to play a particular role in the creative process.
Upon first approaching spiritual things the positive and negative aspects are usually seen as God on the one hand and human beings on the other: human beings must respond to God, the positive radiation, and something then happens. If the response is true there will be the generation of some substance. The reason for the generation of the substance is not to enlighten the human being particularly. It is to make possible the emergence of the angel, that there may be an angel present in human form and functional on earth. Only as this requirement is fulfilled is there any means by which further steps may be taken. So you as angels in the flesh have a particular role to play in the situation in which we find ourselves this evening. This role may be seen as a negative role; and remember, when we use the word “negative” we do not use it to indicate something wrong. The negative aspect of being is just as essential as the positive; there must be both—this is a real duality. So you have a negative role to play here as angels: first of all to bring such substance as has been generated through your human form with you into this place; and then to participate in further generation of spiritual substance, of finer substance, that there may be a garden, that you may invite the Lord into your garden.
Now the Lord of whom we usually think is not incarnate at this present time in human form, so it is necessary that He be represented somehow. If there are angels who provide the facility and play the role of the negative aspect essential to the working of the Law in human experience, then there is the necessity for an angel incarnate in human form to play the role of the positive aspect. The one who plays that positive role in any particular situation is properly, in that situation, an angel representing the Lord on earth through the flesh. The flesh is not the Lord; the spirit is what is being represented; but if the flesh permits that representation to appear so that there is an angel made evident in the flesh, it is difficult if not impossible to separate the flesh from the spirit which is made known by reason of the flesh. And yet the spirit is primary. In this particular situation, evidently I am the one charged with the responsibility of providing a representation of the Lord in the flesh on earth. That representation is only possible to an angel—an angel who is sent to provide what is necessary in this regard. Now I am not limiting this to myself, because in many other situations there is the same requirement of an angel in the flesh representing the Lord, because there must be the positive aspect and the negative aspect of the angelic union if there is to be the true creative expression.
We may perhaps see this in other terms. You may recall the occasion recorded in the Book of Acts when there was what has subsequently been called an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate experience was described as “cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.” Let us see this in relationship to our own experience now. Here we are, gathered together with one accord, in whatever measure of agreement between angels there may be present, and in one place physically speaking. We're all here together in this Chapel and we could say consequently there is one flesh, one body of people, one body of people composed of a positive aspect and a negative aspect, in this sense the union of male and female, one flesh. And out of that one flesh of our gathering here this evening, as it truly is a gathering of angels, there appears the flame, the cloven tongues as of fire. Cloven—two aspects.
It springs forth from the head, or the consciousness of this unified body here present. There is one flesh at the base but there arises from that one flesh two aspects of what is described as fire, an ascending flame of fire, an intensification. And fire propagates light and heat. Light and heat come from the sun. They are made meaningful on earth by reason of reflection; there is substance available for reflection. This light and heat which is generated out of the flame is made meaningful by reason of reflection in the spiritual substance that is present; and there is unified radiation—unified radiation consequent upon the presence of angels with one accord in one place, composing a body which can be referred to as one flesh. It is one flesh because there are the two aspects, the male and the female aspects, the positive and the negative. We could say spiritual union—spiritual union on earth, out of which springs the radiation of the spirit of the Lord on earth, is obviously essential for that radiation.
To the extent that this occurs in our own experience there is radiation at the level of mankind, and it becomes discernible, comprehensible, generating vision in the world wherever there is substance to reflect it. This is happening without those in whom this substance may be present having any idea whatsoever as to what it is that is happening. Insofar as all of you are concerned you had no idea what was happening in your experience, and yet there has been some sort of an experience, hasn't there? This occurs quite rapidly but is all based in the fact of radiation at the level where that radiation is required and the fact of substance at that same level whereby the radiation may be reflected and so become meaningful to human beings. It becomes meaningful to individual human beings for the purpose of generating more substance, because if there is an awareness of new understanding, if there is new vision, the individual's lifestyle, as it is called these days, will change. His attitudes, his approach to living, will be different. It will be consequent upon his new vision, his new experience of himself; and this in turn will generate more spiritual substance both quantitatively and qualitatively. In other words there will be finer levels of substance generated, thereby permitting greater vision, greater understanding, and an increased change in lifestyle.
Of course while this is going on there will be many factors present, dragging the individual back into the old routine. Some will succumb to those factors no doubt, but others, those with integrity, will seek to be as true to their vision as is possible to them. You have come along the way to the extent that you have kept your integrity and been true to your highest vision. It seems relatively easy in the world the way it is to deny and betray that vision with the idea that it will be profitable to do so, perhaps profitable financially or profitable in some other way—you are going to get more of what you want. Every endeavor on the part of a human being to get what he thinks he wants is a violation of integrity. And because it requires that one express something less than one's highest vision, you have to manipulate to get what you want. So this is not yet the experience of the angel on earth. But there are those who will be true to their integrity and will live according to their highest vision.
In the world the way it has been there have always been such, but their vision never went very high simply because on the one hand there was the inadequate generation of substance on the part of those concerned which would allow a reflection of the essential radiation, and on the other hand there has been, for the most part, an inadequate provision of a facility of angelic radiation at the level where human beings are. Once this facility begins to appear so that there is radiation at the level where human beings are, then there will be activation of this spiritual substance which may be present by reason of the generation of at least a segment of the population. So this creative cycle necessarily has had to be set in motion. It is in motion in our own experience now, but there were requirements by which it could be set in motion.
We have noted the fact that a creative cycle has from time to time been set in motion in the world in times past. Something was set in motion at the time of the children of Israel. Something was set in motion at the time when Jesus was on earth. It was set in motion because there was a facility which provided a means of essential radiation at the level where the radiation was required. There was present, and always has been present in the body of mankind, a certain measure of spiritual substance capable of reflecting spiritual radiation. Generally speaking when that reflection has appeared it tended to be overwhelmed by the strong drag that there is in human consciousness based in earthly heredity. This strong drag was very evident in the story of the children of Israel and it brought about the eventual dissolution of that opportunity. The strong drag has been very evident in what has been called Christianity, and so what might have been, from the standpoint of Christianity, has never been. There is dissolution here also. Christianity has become conceptualized in human consciousness and bears virtually no resemblance whatsoever to the truth which was brought into the world by the One whom we may rightly refer to as the Lord, or the Master. And yet that One is supreme to us. We know what was brought from the standpoint of the children of Israel, we know what was brought from the standpoint of the Master, and we know this because we know what is brought now. Only what has been generated now and reflects the radiation now brings with it what might be called enlightenment, understanding, understanding of the past; not that what happened in the past is all that important now except as it brought us to this point. The question is what is happening now. And we see the essential elements needful to permit creative action on earth. There must be angels present in human form, angels willing to play their particular roles in given circumstances.
Now we have this particular circumstance of the moment and there are particular roles to be played in this circumstance. There are other roles in other circumstances but all the roles are included in the working of the Law. We may at one time be playing a negative role in a particular situation and at another time playing a positive role; and I am not making the division in this regard on the basis of male and female. In this particular circumstance now I am a man and playing a positive role. You are both men and women and playing a negative role. In fact I don't stand alone as a man here. There are those who have made possible the role I am playing by providing a garden for me. If I had had to wait around for you to provide me with a garden I would have been waiting a long time. You are now providing me with a garden but only because there have been others who did it before you. And in relationship to that requirement of a garden there are of course two who have played a consistent role in that regard over the years—Lillian and Grace—and so it may be said, in a sense, that the three of us are standing here.
We begin to recognize that there is an expansion, rightly, not only of the negative aspect but of the positive too. In the overall sense of what we call our ministry the positive aspect is the CORE aspect which is composed of quite a number of people. In given situations here or there it may be just one person who provides the positive point and other angels incarnate in human form who willingly offer what is required from the negative standpoint. But we should not assume that because we play a positive role at one time we should not play a negative role at another time. There is complete flexibility in this because as angels we play the roles that are necessary to allow the creative cycles to unfold as they should in all their ramifications. Some of those creative cycles are large ones, some are quite small, and there are many in between; but it requires angels who are present and functional in human flesh in order to get the job done.
As I say, we have a special occasion right in this moment. Every moment, as far as that is concerned, is a special occasion for angelic function, but we may recognize something rather specific in our gathering here this evening where there is a body of one flesh—positive and negative aspects, and something of the flame ascending from this point of junction. And it ascends on the basis of the positive and negative. But from this dual flame there is radiation occurring in the consciousness of mankind as a whole, and within that consciousness is some substance to reflect it. The substance reflects it and those who are associated with the substance that is reflecting it begin to see something, begin to understand, begin to move in a creative cycle, to the extent that there is a willingness to let go to what is being experienced by reason of the radiation. Of course those concerned don't know what is happening but they have an increased vision; something is stirring. It is necessary to let go to that.
Very often the instruction is given to let go of the factors of distortion, the factors of human heredity; but no one will let go of those unless there is present something which he can let go to. If you let go of the factors of earthly heredity, what would you have? What would most people have? Just a blank. And that verges on the experience of insanity, doesn't it? Letting go of earthly heredity is absolutely essential, yes, but it only becomes possible to do when there is something to which human beings may let go—let go to the true radiation. But the true radiation in its initial stages is something rather vague. A person may feel the urge to do the right thing. He's not sure what the right thing is but he feels the urge to do it anyway. So he has a certain level of vision, and he tries to be true to that level of vision. Here is someone of integrity on hand; but if there is to be real movement so that he is not more or less thrashing around in the dark, so to speak, the point of radiation must be seen. We see the sun for instance from the surface of the earth. Everybody is more cheerful on a sunny day. When the light is diffused because of the overcast, then gloom tends to prevail in human consciousness. There may be an awareness of light, it must be coming from someplace, but the individual doesn't know where specifically. But when the sun comes out, there it is; we know; and the whole world lights up because of it. There are many human beings in the twilight state. They are trying to be true to their highest vision but it doesn't seem to be getting them anywhere, and they look at their fellows and they see people violating their integrity all around, getting away with it apparently. It is only when the sun comes out that there is a specific point which brings a sense of certainty.
In our fulfilment of responsibility this evening, to the extent that there is unified radiation released by reason of our presence here, those in whom the substance is present which can reflect this radiation find nothing much more than a diffused light, as it were under an overcast, because they are not in position to see the source of the radiation. You know the source of the radiation because you participate in its release; so it is not a mystery to you. And you consequently have a far greater sense of assurance. You begin to share the knowing of the angel who you really are. But most people in the world don't have that awareness yet. Some of them are in deep, dense darkness anyway, with no flicker of light in the true sense. Those who have some substance to reflect the light and feel the warmth realize that there is something somewhere, but they don't yet know where or what it is. But as, in your own experience, you were true to your integrity, somewhere along the way the light broke through and you became aware that it had a source on earth at the level where we are.
Most people who look to spiritual things are looking into the sky somewhere, into some invisible heaven somewhere else than on earth. There are many people on earth of course who are looking for leadership of one sort or another, and they set this person or that person up on a pedestal but he inevitably falls off it. Then the idea is generated that no one can be trusted, which is true of human beings certainly. No one can be trusted. I don't trust you at all as human beings but I do trust the angel. To the extent that that angel is putting in an appearance I know I can depend on you. I'm not trusting the human being. I'm trusting the angel—the angel who is in charge of the human facility. There begins to be something trustworthy. And so we find a sense of mutual trust to the extent that the angel has put in an appearance and there is a light shining of which we are aware.
We have our contribution to make, whether of the positive aspect of the flame or the negative aspect of the flame, whichever it may be, varying back and forth in different situations. We know the light because we are the light angelically speaking. And others may awaken to that too. They begin to see something, as you have seen something along the way. To start with you don't know what it is. Sometimes it seems too good to be true. But only as you continue to keep your integrity, as you begin to emerge increasingly out of the coarse levels of human function, do you have the substance available which permits the vision to appear by which you can understand. If you don't have the substance you can't understand and you will continue in the old human ways of blaming people and criticizing people and condemning people. That is the filthy state of human nature and it dissipates any substance that might have been present.
I don't care how much substance anyone may have generated back along the way and how much they may have experienced of spiritual things, they can blow it anytime—and many have. Many have insisted upon remaining at coarse levels. “Well if the Lord will come here and save me here, all right, but I'm not going to move.” What a foolish attitude, because on that basis we never know the truth of ourselves; we have no faintest idea of the reason for our presence on earth. Some have complained about that: “I don't know why I am here. I thought I knew somewhere along the way but now I don't know why I am here.” Well if that is true the substance has been blown somehow. There is only one way to go and that is to generate some substance in living. But you can't generate that substance if you are immersed in critical attitudes and in demanding attitudes.
So as angels here present, all that has receded into the background, has no further meaning to us. Let what is filthy be filthy still, but not in us. Let what is righteous be righteous because there is an angel present and he keeps all his expression sacred and plays whatever roles are necessary in the unfolding creative cycles, a negative role sometimes, a positive role sometimes. But there is great variety with respect to the roles themselves, never a dull moment when we are doing it as angels—otherwise boredom and uselessness and hopelessness set in. Well if anyone has that experience in human consciousness he knows in that moment that the angel has been ejected from his experience. We make our own choices. We are responsible for whatever occurs in our experience; no one else is.
Seeing this, how important it is then that we should play our roles as angels in whatever the circumstances may be. And we don't try to make the circumstances be some way that we want them to be. We let them be whatever they are and play our role there. That is the only role we can play; otherwise it is just simply imagination. The way it is is the only thing we can handle, because it is the way it is. It is the only real thing that is present to handle, and if we are not struggling with all the things that we think should be, then how easy it becomes. We only have one thing to handle, the thing of the moment. We only have one thing to handle in this moment. I have my role to play, you have your role to play; nothing else is required. It is quite sufficient; it may occupy our total experience and consciousness if we are willing to let it. To that extent we are with one accord in one place.
And there is the fire burning, transmuting, radiating. The radiation goes forth but not for our personal benefit; it goes forth to achieve the creative purposes of the One whom we represent on the basis of the roles that we play. We all have the responsibility of representing that One, and we don't do it secondhand; we take responsibility for that representation. I do in this moment. I represent Him in this moment. I take that responsibility. I don't say, “Well Lord, please come here and take my place.” Of what value would that be? He is in no position to come here and take my place. Collectively we are providing a garden of increasing quality and size so that there may be a place where He could come, if He chooses to come; but that is His business. We provide the garden and we keep the garden, whether He is here or not, because this is His domain and we are stewards of it, responsible people—responsible angels.
I thank God for the angelic expression which is appearing through the human facility. But we remember that the human facility needs some training to be in position adequately to encompass the angelic expression in every circumstance. We can handle that too when we know the business we are about. I thank God for your participation this evening as angels, to the extent that this has been true in expression through your human form, that there might be creative achievement to the extent that there has. Glory to God in the highest. We are here to let that be true because we live always to our angelic highest.
© emissaries of divine light
May 24, 2020
Let My Beloved Come Into His Garden
Let My Beloved Come Into His Garden
Martin Cecil August 7, 1977 am
“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” Here is a portrayal of what should rightly be your attitude and experience this morning. “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south.” Here is an acknowledgment of the working of the Law—positive action, negative reaction—with which you must be directly associated if your presence here this morning is to have any real meaning. So there is an acknowledgment of the Law. “Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.” Only as your living is a revelation of the working of the Law do you know the reality of your garden. Are you aware of the sacred place in which you dwell and which you would never violate? By reason of your living in harmony with the Law the winds of the spirit blow upon your garden and the spices thereof flow forth. Here is the evidence of the generation of spiritual substance. It is only possible as you have a garden in which you dwell because your life gives evidence of the working of the Law.
The first great commandment brings to point something with respect to the working of the Law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all… And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Most people spend their lives condemning their neighbors, evidencing little love, understanding, enfoldment, little blessing, which of course gives abundant evidence of a failure to keep the first great commandment. Living the Law, the garden is known. It seems that most live in rather barren and desolate places—no garden, no association with the Law, no living, merely dying—but here these words portray the attitude and the experience of those whose lives are of such quality that spiritual substance is constantly being generated and flowing forth. It is only as this is so that a genuine invitation may be offered: “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” There are many people who in fancy invite the Lord to be with them, but for the most part there is little real substance available for this fulfilment to be known. Response, the generation of substance, is essential if the reality of the positive radiation phase of the One Law is to be experienced. The positive radiation phase of the One Law is the coming of the Lord. Those who have called themselves Christians look hopefully for the day when this will happen, failing to recognize that it is their responsibility if it is to happen. Without response and the substance of response the fact of radiation cannot be known. There may be some fancy in the consciousness of people, some imagination, but the fact remains unknown.
There always has been radiation. There would be no universe if it were not for the fact of eternal radiation, to which there is response or the universe wouldn't exist—an easy, natural response which allows all things of creation to move according to the design inherent in the radiation. But insofar as human beings are concerned they have the ability to contend with the Lord. That contention of course has put in an appearance on the basis of the endeavor by human beings to determine what shall happen here on earth, and that endeavor is brought to point on the basis of the human intellect, that so wise creature which assumes that it is in position to be as God. That assumption has brought some terrible things into the experience not only of mankind on the surface of this planet but of all living things that are present here also.
Only to the extent that there is genuine response with a consequent quality of living which permits the generation of spiritual substance can the reality of the radiation be known, the radiation which is the source and the sustaining power of all things in the dimensional world, of which human beings are aware and of which they are not aware. Incidentally there is far more of which they are not aware than of which they are aware. In spite of delving so extensively in the bottomless pit of knowledge, what human beings know or think they know is almost entirely make-believe. Nowadays such things have the confirming tag of science placed upon the knowing. This is supposed to make it valid, but the truth which is inherent in this radiation of the One Law can only be known as there is response in living, so that the quality of life experienced permits the generation of spiritual substance.
The extent of spiritual substance that you have brought this morning into the Chapel will determine exactly the extent of radiation that you will experience. There is no limit, there is no restriction to the radiation, but it only has meaning to human beings to the extent that there is spiritual substance to give it meaning, and the spiritual substance is the responsibility of the individual to generate. That generation comes on the basis of a quality of living, so it isn't just a momentary thing in the Chapel now. You brought something in with you. I wonder how much. It is possible that there may be a further generation while you are here, but what happens when you leave?
In this particular verse which I read to you there is, as I say, a portrayal of what is properly and naturally true of you in this particular setting at this particular time. The next verse, which is at the beginning of another chapter, is an indication of what is properly true of me: “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.”
Where there is the substance, the spiritual substance of response, there is the abundant experience of what is available by reason of radiation. You this morning in this setting are responsible for the response aspect of the unit which we together form, and I am responsible for the radiation aspect. You cannot have one without the other in experience. You cannot know the radiation without the response, and it isn't just a matter of mental agreement; it is a matter of living; it is a matter of fact. What is the actual fact in your own experience moment by moment, day by day? What is the quality of your living? If that quality gives evidence of true spiritual expression, of the fulfilment of the One Law in you, then there is the generation of spiritual substance and there is the experience of whatever arises by reason of the radiation in the moment. Yesterday evening Grace spoke to those who were present here in the Chapel. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/05/melchizedek-increase-grace-van-duzen.html] Her words and the spirit of them were indeed most exquisitely beautiful, and I am sure that those who were present with any substance of response were touched by her spirit. Something flowed forth from you to her. According to that flowing forth, so was her expression, so was the radiation which she offered. Consequently there was a certain intensification in the experience of all concerned.
Subsequently, as seems to be customary in Emissary circles, snacks were served in the dining room and most of those who had been at the service were present there no doubt, but at least to start with we were not. When we arrived we came into the room and were met with a roar of sound—people talking. This is supposed to be quite natural for people; they do it all the time. The very level of noise that was present was an indication of the fact of what had occurred in the Chapel. There had been an intensification but then it was channeled back into the usual and customary human structures of expression and it came out loud and raucous. Lillian said something about it and it calmed down a bit. I draw attention to this not in condemnation of anyone but merely to indicate what tends to happen. If there begins to be something of experienced radiation in a service there is an intensification insofar as all present are concerned which, unless the quality of living is right and has become habitual, will subsequently be mistranslated in the factual experience of those concerned and the substance that was present, that had been generated, will thereby be dissipated, and the radiation will tend to vanish. Where did it go? What happened? The individual finds himself right back where he was before.
There are these two aspects, both of which are essential: the positive and the negative aspects, the response aspect and the radiation aspect. Now these must be brought to point in experience, human experience, on earth if they are to have any meaning to human beings. They may be operative, and are—the Law is operative everywhere in the universe but not presently in the experience of human beings. They do not consciously know what is happening, what they are doing, why they are here, or anything else. They try to make meaning for themselves in various ways because of this yawning chasm in their experience, this emptiness, this lack; and people rush hither and yon trying to fill it. This happens in the physical world, doesn't it, with respect to the disposition of the garbage: Find a chasm somewhere and fill it up with garbage and it will make a good building site. The way this is handled is very much the same as the way human beings handle the holes in themselves. They fill them up with garbage and then neatly cover the garbage over with a little surface appearance of something worthwhile. Negative response is the essential element that has been lacking insofar as human beings are concerned, that they might experience the truth inherent in the radiation of which I have been speaking. Positive and negative aspects—sometimes this is thought of in terms of male and female.
In the field which we have just been examining there is a tendency on the part of people, in their attitude and approach to the Lord, to try to play hard to get. “Well if you really want me, Lord, come after me.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/my-lord-i-love-you.html] This has been the general approach for a long time in human experience; but they have never tempted the Lord to the point where He came after them. You either offer the response or you go away empty. The Law works. It's absolute. It is the quality and nature of God; and human beings, no matter how hard they try, can't change it. There has been a lot of weeping and wailing on the part of human beings about their sad, miserable lot. What a cruel God to have things this way: Please, God, change things around to suit me so that I'm happy! And while that was endeavoring to tempt God, God was never tempted; He never fell for it. If human beings want their misery they can have it as long as they last. It is entirely a matter of human choice. The alternative has always been present, the radiation has always been there, but virtually no response, and human beings have been trying to get God to come after them. It doesn't work that way.
We see the same sort of thing in this matter of the male-female relationship too, don't we? I am speaking of it in a general sense; perhaps it's not true of you individually; but the idea is that the woman goes after her man, maybe quite subtly, but she plays hard to get. This has cast the male of the species in the role of the hunter. He has to chase her; otherwise he's not going to get her. But when he gets her he finds she's got him! And the male of the species has fallen for this. In fact it's become so habitual that very often manhood is equated in these terms, when it is exactly the opposite of manhood. Insofar as the male is concerned the first great commandment applies: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all.” It doesn't say, “Thou shalt love a female with all; worship her; set her up on a pedestal; try to please her.” Not at all. “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” That's the truth, because only so can there be generated the substance which will permit the experience of what real manhood is. If there is no spiritual substance there's no manhood; there can't be; just a pretense, just a counterfeit. Manhood is not experienced by the male of the species because of the female; it is experienced because of God. And when there is a man around maybe that will inspire a woman somewhere to stop playing these childish games. Nowadays it seems that because men have not been men women are trying to be men—a woman can only be a woman and a man can only be a man, but neither one has known what this would mean for a long, long time.
“I am come into my garden.” To what extent is this true this morning? Of course first of all there must be a garden here to come into. There must be the substance which makes it possible. We can fool ourselves; we can jump around with evangelical fervor and generate a good deal of emotion, but it means absolutely nothing. It probably dissipates any substance there might have been to start with. I am come into my garden to the extent that you are willing to let me. “Let my beloved come into his garden.” The only way you can let me is because the spices of the garden are flowing out, are flowing to me. Then we are connected up; then there is substance in which the beautiful expression of the spirit of the living God may be known by all of us. This has been called the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but there have been some very limited concepts in this regard. It is a real experience, not a fanciful one. Human beings have for so long been content with their imagination, excluding the reality. But we have parts to play; there is a design. Things work the way they work and they don't work any other way. Human beings have been trying to make them work all kinds of ways for millennia, but they won't. They only work the way they work, and the way they work includes an aspect of creation that is called man—at least insofar as this planet is concerned—but man has been absent for a long time, absent without leave. He's been on the run. That's right, isn't it?
Long ago something happened, and the story is portrayed in the Book of Genesis. There was a moment when the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and there was no one around, no one there. So the question was asked, “Where art thou?” And the answer came which indicated that those who should have been man were experiencing something that was not the evidence of real manhood and womanhood. They were ashamed and afraid—shame and fear are two very prominent experiences insofar as human beings are concerned, yourselves included. This is not the experience of man. This is not the experience in the garden. This is the experience in the state which has become habitual to human beings, but it's not the true state. At the point when the question was asked, “Where art thou?”—here is an analogy, but there was an actual happening—when that question was asked there was the opportunity for those who were present to say, “Here am I.” Obviously that opportunity wasn't taken. They were all wrapped up in their shames and their fears, as though they had somehow been imposed upon them, and that is the attitude most people take, isn't it? “I didn't ask to be born. All my miseries and troubles have been imposed on me and I can tell you specifically who some of the people are that have imposed these things on me.” Amongst them of course are our forebears; “original sin” they call it. Poppycock! There may be something there to which human beings have insisted upon being subject but that's their own choice, the choice that is made by each individual for him- or herself. There is no necessity. We can respond and allow our quality of life to generate some spiritual substance, which would cause us to be aware increasingly of the truth of ourselves instead of this shameful, fearful creature which a lot of people have the temerity to call man.
So the Lord God came walking in the garden, and that opportunity was rejected. So the way things worked out, the garden vanished from the experience of human beings. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-garden-called-to-remembrance.html] There is nothing to say that the garden was dissolved; in fact a cherubim with a flaming sword was put there to keep the way of the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden, so it's still around; but if there was a rejection of that nature at that point there must be in the returning cycle an acknowledgment of the truth when that point is reached. The truth. There have been those down through the ages who brought to specific focus a point of representation in this regard at the level where human beings are. One of them was mentioned yesterday evening in the person of Melchizedek, the King of Righteousness, Prince of Peace, a positive expression of radiation which Abraham recognized. Apparently very few others did. He was the Priest of the Most High God, a point of radiation not understood, not understood even to this day. Why? Because there wasn't adequate spiritual substance to make it understandable. It's not a matter of wanting to understand: “Oh I wish I could understand. O God let me understand.” He will let you understand if your quality of living will generate the required substance which makes understanding possible. He's not holding out. How many people have blamed God for the condition in which they find themselves: “It's His fault!” No, it's one's own fault, in concert with about four billion other people.
The only way by which the truth can be brought to human beings is through human beings. We have taken note of one in the person of Melchizedek. Another obvious one I suppose is Moses, and more recently the one called Jesus. He wasn't understood—He isn't understood because to all intents and purposes there has been no spiritual substance which would make that understanding possible. There has been a lot of imagination. There have been a lot of concepts developed, a lot of beliefs, a lot of ideas; but the truth, what's that? There is no way of knowing it, certainly not on the basis of belief; that's not the truth. Belief is always in a human concept about something. What of the truth of the something about which there is a concept? That truth can never be found by conceptualizing it. It only becomes known by living it, and one will live it to the extent that there is a generation of the essential substance which connects one with the truth. Then you know it; otherwise you don't; and no amount of human effort will produce anything except more confusion.
Let us extend the invitation to the Lord, which He will not hesitate to accept. Let's make Him an offer that He cannot refuse, that He will not refuse, because it is the offer He has been waiting for, the offer of the essential spiritual substance generated by our living. “Let my beloved come into his garden,” because I have made that coming possible. Now in this particular setting together here we have the opportunity of exemplifying something, because all these requirements remain theoretical until they are accepted into the situation here and now. As long as we keep them out there somewhere—Jesus is coming one day—it's all nonsense. He will never come one day on that basis, because He will have no means of coming. There are the essential clouds of heaven in which He comes, but human beings are responsible for the clouds of heaven, to provide the facility for His coming. He came as an individual certainly, exemplified something as an individual, and there were those who were willing to make that coming possible. He was born into the world just as all the rest of us are.
Now we have this situation, together here this morning, where you are extending some sort of an invitation to me, or you wouldn't be sitting there. I must have some sort of a place in your hearts. “Let my beloved come into his garden.” Is that what you are saying? Well make sure that your garden isn't a counterfeit, make sure that it's the real thing, because if what I offer is the real thing I can't come into a counterfeit, only the real thing; and I can come in to the extent that that real thing is there. Then I may say, “I am come into my garden,” and I have something to offer, and we all become aware of what that is because we have substance which allows understanding. If we don't have the substance we don't have the understanding. Simple. In effect I say, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved, my sister, my spouse.” That's the way it is in this particular situation.
The truth, the reality, can only come through human beings. That's the only way it comes. People may hopefully gaze into the sky, looking for the coming of something or other. If they gaze long enough they may see signs, but no coming. We only experience the truth, the reality, to the extent that we are in position to do it; and that isn't by fancy; it's by participating in the actual design. I am come into my garden to whatever extent there is a garden here this morning, and to that extent I have offered something to eat and to drink, that there might be the increased experience of the real nature and quality of life, that that nature and quality of life might be carried with us. Then when we leave the Chapel we do not revert immediately into the old state again, the old conventions, because if we do that we are saying in effect to the Lord, “Come get me. Come get me, next Sunday maybe”—playing hard to get.
The Lord always provides what He does in radiation. It's always there, but a person only knows it to the extent that he maintains and sustains and generates the connecting substance in his momentary living; but he won't sink back into the same old state again. That same old state usually involves a lot of running off at the mouth in momentary living, idle words which fall to the ground, idle words which if they are expressed by someone in the descending aspect of the cycle carry the individual down with them. Down he goes, down, down, down. Every word proceeding out of the mouth of God, which should be the word falling from the lips of man made in the image and likeness of God, lifts up, up, up. Ascension. There are two ways to go: up or down; and each person makes the choice for him- or herself. Nobody else can or does do it for you. You can never blame somebody else.
You can make a right choice exactly the way things are. Let's not fool ourselves. Let's not deceive ourselves anymore. How much self-deception there has been in the world. It's obvious everywhere. Everyone is blaming everybody else. Nobody has the manhood or the womanhood to stand up and say, “It's me! It's my responsibility, nobody else's responsibility. I'm not going to try to palm it off on somebody else.” What wishy-washy people there are in the world. Let's grow up. Let's experience the reality of maturity in the current of the spirit of the living God as we move in harmony with the working of the Law and as the expression of our living exemplifies the beauty of the angelic character which is the truth for each one.
© emissaries of divine light
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