The Body Of The Intercessor

Body  of  the  Intercessor

The  Connecting  Link

Martin Cecil  May 13, 1964  am

We are aware that man, male and female, is supposed to be the connecting link between Creator and creation. As we bring this principle to a point of application with respect to ourselves we see that the immediate requirement is that a connecting link should be established between God and man. Long ago mankind stepped out of its true position; before it can come again into that position there must be a connection established between mankind and God. Looking back we may recognize that the Lord Himself came on earth specifically to refocalize this point of connection. At the time He came the children of men were adrift, without any adequate experienced connection with God. This is not to say that there were not in those days many sincere people who were seeking to worship God according to their highest vision. This is not to say that some of them did not find a relationship with God that brought many blessings; we have come to recognize, however, that God does not work on a haphazard basis. There is something very exact about the ways of the Lord. This exactness is evident in many different fields where human beings have the ability to analyze, examine and observe.

The connection, having been lost by mankind, needed to be restored. Our Master came into the world to initiate this means of restoring the connection, and it works according to specific laws and principles and according to a very definite design. The design which permits it to work is God-made, not man-made, and no matter how earnest and sincere human beings may be in their desire to serve God, they still cannot achieve what needs to be done except on the basis of the essential design which is divinely established.

Coming to this day and age, we have recognized something of these principles as they apply to our present field of ministry. Regardless of the sincerity and earnestness of human beings in many places, there is in fact only one way by which this connection with God can be established so that it might provide the means by which mankind could be restored, step by step, back into position so as to provide the complete connection between Creator and creation. The first step is to provide the connection between Creator and man. Until that is done man must remain out of place and there is no connection divinely established between Creator and creation here in the world. So we are very particularly concerned with this connecting point by which Creator and creation, in the sense of man, are connected together again.

Going back before our Master's time we have seen how a previous opportunity in this regard was worked out, coming to focus through the children of Israel. We have noted that this was a physical approach, which did not immediately provide the essential connection, because the essential connection between Creator and creation is at the level of the spiritual expression plane of being, or the highest level in this outer world. If therefore the need is, in any given cycle, to start at the lowest level—the physical—obviously there has to be a movement from level to level until the point is reached where the door can be opened and the connection made. The door is not opened simply from the standpoint of the physical plane of being. Neither is it opened simply from the standpoint of the mental plane of being. It only opens as we move to the apex of the spiritual expression plane of being. Then the connection can be made.

When our Master was on earth of course the approach at that time was from the level of the mental plane, under His direction; but even so, it had to move up to the spiritual expression plane level before the door could be opened. At this present time we proceed from the standpoint of the spiritual expression plane of being. In these previous two approaches we may be able to see that it was in some respects easier, because there was a consideration from the standpoint, first of all, of the physical level, where man has most of his experience, and the movement was then gradually, step by step, from the physical through the mental to the spiritual expression. At this present time we necessarily have to make the spiritual expression plane approach without regard to the mental and the physical, in the sense of our approach. The mental and the physical begin to come into the picture to the extent that we have made the spiritual expression plane approach. To the extent that we permit the door to be opened, then something comes through the door into the mental and into the physical. It is not a matter of clambering up the mountain, so to speak; it is a matter of standing on top of the mountain and letting that which comes down from God out of heaven flow down the mountainside. Once the connection has been made the process is easy. The difficulty, if there is one, is to make the connection from the standpoint of the direct approach from the spiritual expression plane of being. It is far less laborious, incidentally, than the physical plane approach or the mental plane approach, because we do not have to pass through these levels to get to the peak. We can move directly to the peak, to the apex, in order to let the connection be made.

Now in the physical plane approach a physical people was established, taken out of the peoples of the world to compose a nation, and they were supposed to keep moving forward and upward until they could be in position to represent all mankind to God and to represent God to all mankind. Of course they never reached that point. Within the scope of the body of the children of Israel there were thirteen tribes. Usually reference is made to the twelve tribes, but there was a thirteenth—the Levites—who were the Priesthood, and the Priesthood permeated all the other twelve tribes. They had no specific possession in the promised land in the sense of an area but they were present in relationship to all twelve tribes, and the Levites, or the Priesthood, were supposed to represent the twelve tribes to God and God to the twelve tribes. It is apparent that they did not succeed too well in this responsibility. We could carry it still further and recognize that there was a High Priest who was supposed to represent the Levites to God and God to the Levites. It would seem that this didn't work too well either. In any case, while there was failure nevertheless we can observe the principles involved.

There must be that which represents man to God and that which represents God to man if there is to be the connection established between man and God. Human beings have been inclined to take the attitude that somehow they could make the connection directly, as individuals. Something can be achieved along those lines, and has been, but it is never adequate to restore man to the position of being the connecting link in the overall sense. Now this was the concern of the children of Israel, although they didn't adequately realize it. It was the concern of the disciples in our Master's time, although it is evident that they didn't adequately realize it. It is our concern at this time. The question is as to whether we adequately realize it. We are here to make that provision of connection, and the only way it can be done is from the standpoint of this matter of representation—representing mankind to God and God to mankind. Now perhaps we had better narrow the field down a little. Fundamentally, in the initial stages of the development, if it is the spiritual expression plane approach, we are concerned with the apex pattern of connection and that relates to what might be described as the Priesthood. We have referred to this as the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.

There are those who have tried to follow out a pattern of this nature, at least using the name, but it is more than using a name. It requires an actual function, an actual experience. It requires that we actually be what is required, that we actually provide the necessary representation.Now the representation, while it ultimately includes all of mankind, may be presently seen as it relates to those whom we speak of as responding ones. Of course, if mankind is to be restored, it will be because of response, but we are concerned with those who are responding, and particularly with those who are reaching a level where they can begin to participate in conscious awareness. There are countless thousands of responding ones on earth who certainly have not reached a level where they could participate in a conscious awareness as yet, but there are others who are emerging, and we may recognize that there is more to it than what appears on the surface. In other words it is not just a matter of what we would call response in a general sense. Let us see if we can begin to bring something to point here. Supposing there are a hundred people responding at the same level, approximately, to God. Each of those hundred people is the form of manifestation of a God Being. Each of those God Beings has a particular place and part to play in the Divine Design. Now the individual who is to participate, from the standpoint of the God Being involved, in the initial development of the emerging design will be the responding one who has the opportunity, at least, to experience a conscious awareness first. It is true that contact has been made by this ministry with many thousands of people who did not carry through. Some of these no doubt could have played a very valuable part in the development of our program, because of the God Beings involved. The fact that some particular God Being does have a specific place in the initial stages of the emerging design does not necessarily mean that the human being will let that Divine expression come through adequately so that there may be a filling of the part and place, but the opportunity is provided.

I emphasize this point simply because there needs to be a recognition that that which makes possible a connecting link between God and man, His crowning creation, is very specific and exact; it is not a haphazard thing. It is not a matter of extending something into the world which would somehow enlighten all responding ones, so that all of them would immediately become consciously aware of this program. On that basis there would tend to be a situation which would overwhelm that which was rightly emerging. The emergence must be on the basis of that which makes possible the filling out of the Divine Design, so that the initial formation of this connecting link, which is the Priesthood, or the Body of the Intercessor, may be adequately established. So, from the standpoint of those who have come to a point of conscious awareness, the representation to God is of the responding ones—those who are first of all emerging into conscious awareness, and also responding ones in general. I would make a distinction here also. There are those who have a conscious awareness of this ministry who do not have a conscious awareness of what this ministry is. The fact that some person is associated with this ministry—on the mailing list, we will say, or even in a closer association—does not necessarily mean that that person has a conscious awareness, actually, of what this ministry is. We might ask the question of you here: To what extent do you actually have a conscious awareness of what this ministry is? I have no doubt that all of you would say you think you do, but to what extent is it an awareness of the truth, or to what extent is it an awareness of your own ideas with respect to such truth as you have seen? There is a difference.

We are here, then, to the extent that we do have this awareness of the truth in fact, to provide this dual pattern of representation: representing what we might call the twelve tribes to God, and God to the twelve tribes—the twelve tribes of the responding ones of the earth. This establishes the nature of the proper attitude which we should hold toward the Lord and toward the twelve tribes. In our attitude toward the Lord we are, rightly, representing the twelve tribes of responding ones; we are representing, in other words, response; we are representing that which is right in attitude, wherever it may be present in human beings, toward the Lord. Now this relates to attitude within the design itself, of which we begin to have a conscious awareness. We can recognize something in this regard with respect to your attitude toward me, and incidentally my attitude toward you. It is my responsibility to represent the Lord to you, and to represent you to the Lord. It is your responsibility to represent responding ones to me, and me to responding ones.

Now in speaking of you and me I have reference to that which is of the Divine Pattern, not simply to the human beings concerned. There are those who have looked at me as a human being—pretty well all they have seen—and perhaps I reminded them of someone they had known back along the way somewhere whom they had either liked or disliked, and their attitude toward me was accordingly. We have noted this tendency on the part of human beings to react on the basis of feeling memory patterns with respect to each other. It has nothing at all to do with the facts, or the truth of the moment, but is something dredged up out of the past. And so there are those who simply consider the outer form, the manifest form, and fail to recognize that it is not that, but that which finds release in expression through the outer form, that is the factor of importance, and it is this which provides the possibility of representation of the Lord to responding ones. It is this in me which makes it possible for me to represent the Lord to you, and your attitude toward me should be based in the fact that you recognize yourselves as representing responding ones, so you represent to me only that which is of the response pattern. You do not represent to me those things which certainly are present in the body of mankind which are of the adversary pattern, or the rebellious pattern, or the rejection pattern. There must be a clear pattern of right representation, and it is this clear pattern of right representation between us that keeps the vibration clear and that makes it possible for you in turn to represent the Lord to each other, and to those who are the responding ones beyond you; and you remember, therefore, in your dealings with each other and in your dealings with other human beings, that you are representing the Lord.

No doubt you have had a recognition of these principles, but this evening I am seeking to bring it down to a point where you begin to accept the principles in relationship to yourselves to a greater degree than heretofore. In other words, that you may recognize that you are in actual fact now, in this present moment, representatives of the Lord to the responding ones, and representatives of the responding ones to the Lord. This is the conscious awareness which you must have if you are to know the truth with respect to this ministry. If you do not have this conscious awareness, only an intellectual recognition of it, you do not know the truth of this ministry. It must be something which you actually experience in your daily function, so that you have an awareness of your own position in this regard, your own place.

Now there are those who have been concerned about place. Well here perhaps you can see something with respect to place that carries a true vibration. It is the conscious awareness of the individual, in his particular position in the pattern of life, of his or her representation of the Lord to the responding ones and of the responding ones to the Lord that causes a person to be in place. In your attitude toward one another, and toward all those with whom you come in contact in the direct sense day by day, it is your responsibility to represent the Lord. Your attitude must be such that it is a conscious representation of the Lord in your dealings with others. To what extent would you at this present time consider this to be true of yourself? It is to some degree. Perhaps there are moments when it is emphasized in your consciousness and other moments when you forget all about it and you behave like a fallen human being.

There is a service to be rendered by the Priesthood, and this is it. It is only as we begin to have a conscious awareness of it in our function that we begin to understand the nature of the service which is to be rendered. If we forget, lose all consciousness of representing responding ones to the Lord, and the Lord to responding ones, we are at least in a coma, aren't we, from the Divine standpoint—in the tomb, in a coma! Of course this is true of the body of mankind as a whole. They have forgotten all this. This is being called to your remembrance by the spirit of truth, and to the degree that you do remember and consequently function accordingly, you are to that extent experiencing the resurrection from the tomb and you are beginning to move into place. It must be a conscious thing. We must emerge out of the coma, and it must become a constant thing so that at no moment could we be caught sleeping, caught in the state of unconsciousness with respect to this truth as it relates to ourselves, as it relates to actual living, as it relates to what we do and say, what we think and feel. And here is the key point with respect to the reestablishment of the connecting link between Creator and creation at this present time.

Obviously, in order to develop a state of wakefulness there is the necessity of some deliberate action. Did you ever wake up in the morning and you were between sleeping and waking? Perhaps it was rather a pleasant condition, and you were quite content to lie there in that condition, and if you lay there very long you lost consciousness again, didn't you? You went back to sleep. If you were to wake up you had to take some deliberate steps. So it is, also, in emergence from this coma. Sometimes human beings get themselves into states of coma, in the medical sense, and happily stay there, because the individual wants to stay there. It takes some deliberate action in such case for a person to come out of that coma. Now I am not saying there are not occasions when a coma is necessary from the standpoint of physical restoration. The individual may be rightly unconscious for a period of time in order to permit some restoration to take place. I am not speaking of that particularly. I am speaking of those comas into which human beings go sometimes when they are seeking to escape—escape from life. It is very convenient to be able to lie unconscious in a bed and have no responsibility. In such case it takes some deliberate action on the part of the individual to come out of that coma, and it takes deliberate action on our part to come out of this spiritual coma in which fallen man has been existing for so long.

We have to do something, and there is a need then for this awareness of what it is that needs to be done: deliberately to accept the responsibility now, in this moment and in each succeeding moment, for representing responding ones to God and representing God to the responding ones. Of course in fact we represent God to all people; we just simply represent God; but the responding ones are the only ones who will be influenced by our representation. It takes some thought, it takes a deliberate assumption of the right attitude, because no doubt there are many things in the world of man which are clamoring to be represented in us, many things that are wrong, many things that are certainly not of the response pattern. Our responsibility is to represent the response pattern to God, represent only that which is true of that pattern to the Lord, and we have to watch because no doubt there are those things seeking to be represented by us; the adversary is always on hand to try to gain a representative. The mass consciousness of humanity is present. The question is: What are we going to represent out of it? There are elements of response in the mass consciousness of humanity, and it is these that we select to represent, and we ignore the others because we recognize there is no need to bring those before the Lord. There is nothing gained by it. The Lord works through response. We represent response, then, to the Lord; and in our dealings one with another and in our dealings with people and circumstances in general, including everything, we represent the Lord.

We represent the Divine character in what we do, and what we say, and how we act. This is true whether we are alone or whether we are in company with others. We have a constant, conscious awareness of who we are: the Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, representing man to God and God to man. Let us allow this truth to be emphasized in us tonight, that we may deliberately let it be so in us.

© emissaries of divine light