Like A Man
Martin Cecil May 8, 1977
As individuals, how great is your sense of destiny? This ministry has meaning and effect to the extent that those who compose it are keenly conscious of a sense of destiny. How aware are you that individually speaking you each play a part which is absolutely unique and essential in the achievement of those purposes for which this ministry exists? It isn't only a matter of the other fellow having a sense of destiny, so that you might ride along upon what someone else's experience is. That sense of destiny comes to the extent that our involvement with the earthly state recedes in our experience. If we are wrapped up in the world, which certainly seems to be present all around us, then amongst the four billion other human beings on earth we become equally meaningless; there is no sense to our continued existence. So it is reasonable to suppose that we would feel rather futile. Most people try not to think about it, but presumably we have seen something of a vision which transcends the outlook of most people.
The voice of the Lord has spoken, and in varying measure we have heard that voice: "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away"; remember who you are and why you are here on earth; let the sense of destiny be known. His voice speaks this morning as we share this hour, to call the truth to remembrance. We may hear it, even as Job heard it long ago speaking out of the whirlwind and saying, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" Who is it that has usurped the position of the truth in your experience to bring a sense of meaninglessness? Who is it that has attempted to control and direct your living by the knowledge of your mind and the feelings of your heart? Who is it that has held sway in your experience so that the sense of true destiny was obscured? As long as this one continues to exist in your experience, of what real value could you be on earth? Do you remember now, and in each succeeding moment, that you were sent as an emissary of the Lord into the earth to manifest and live in human form—your present human form?
"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me."Remember that man was created male and female. Man is not just the positive aspect of the combination, or the one who should occupy that position, nor indeed the negative aspect, but both—there is no man without both. "Gird up now thy loins like a man." Be prepared to remember what it is to be a man, for in man is the sense of destiny. Man was created in the image and likeness of God for a purpose. Without the experience of man there can be no experience of true purpose. Human beings have invented purposes for themselves to try to fill the void which they feel. If they succeed they have succeeded only in deluding themselves. "Gird up now thy loins like a man," male and female, and hear the question that is asked of you—as it has been asked of all generations of human beings to this hour: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding."
If you have made any claims to intelligence, if you thought you knew something, answer this question. The question is not asked merely to prove the ignorance of human beings but to emphasize in human consciousness what naturally should be known. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" What are the foundations of the earth? This is not talking about the earth itself but about the foundations of the earth, the reason for the existence of the earth. The question might be seen as relating to the planet but it can be seen as relating to what we call "physical form," great or small. What is it that causes the existence of physical form? What is it that has brought forth the dimensional universe? What is it that maintains the existence of this planet and all that is present upon the surface of it? What are the foundations of the earth? The heaven is the foundation of the earth; without the heaven there could be no earth. What is it that you know of the heaven?
"Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof?" Do you remember? Or are you in darkness? There are many human beings who might say, "The Lord did this." But do they know? Do they know what their words mean? Is there in reality any separation between heaven and earth, between the Lord and the truth of man? Who is the Lord? Pharaoh asked this question and then proceeded to answer it, "I know not the Lord." Apparently in that instance he was at least honest. He acknowledged the fact that he did not know the Lord. It would seem that all too many human beings are not that honest. They think they know when they don't. They have a concept of the mind, they have an intellectual belief, they might even have a belief of the heart, but what is known? What is known of the reason for all existence? Some of the facts of existence are seen and experienced, but what is known of the reason for those facts? If we are capable of girding up our loins like a man the understanding would obviously be present that characterizes a man, and that understanding includes the truth of being, an awareness of the fact that there was no separation between the truth of one's own being and the truth of all being; there was and is no such separation.
What is known of this? Insofar as you are concerned, doubtless you have many ideas about it, but what in heaven do you know? That knowing is based in a sense of destiny, in a sense of eternal purpose, in the fact of one's own being. The Lord says, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?" Are you capable of giving an honest answer? "I was there. I was with Thee. I was and am a part of what Thou art."
When the creation of the earth is mentioned most people think of it in terms of the past; sometime in ages past something happened. The solar system took form somehow and in due season the earth appeared. This is idle speculation in the field of imagination. What do we know? We know that the earth is here; we know that we are here; we know something of the vastness of the form of creation. Has creation ceased? It's still here. If there is creation there is a Creator. Without the Creator the creation is not. The creation is; it certainly has not ceased. It's here and the Creator is here. Now is the day of creation. The creation is known in this present moment. It may only be speculated about, insofar as human consciousness is concerned, as creation may have related to the past. Whoever may have been present at a particular point of creation in the past may be capable of remembering it but what is known is what is present now, the creation that is here now. In human consciousness there may be idle speculation, imagination; in the true consciousness of being there may be memory.
But what is it that is needful? Merely to speculate, or conceivably to remember? I think not. What is needful is to know now the reality of creation, the reason for creation now, the foundations of the earth in all its myriad forms now. The truth is present now. The truth can only be known now. Certainly the creative process was clear to man somewhere in the past. Man participated in that creative process once: "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy"—when there was harmonious expression by reason of the mind of man on earth, by reason of his thoughts and his feelings. "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy"—when the sons and daughters of God incarnate on earth were filled with the joys of creation, and there were the beautiful sounds of creation on every hand. Let this sense of destiny rise up in you, that you may begin to know the truth of creation now, as the morning stars begin to sing together once again and the sons and daughters of God shout for joy.
For this to occur there are many questions to be answered, not for you, but by you. Human beings are always demanding answers; there is what is called an insatiable quest for knowledge. They have been so busy trying to find answers that they never heard the question that was being asked of them: "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." This begins to put man back where he belongs—capable of answering the questions of the creative process on earth, capable of handling his field of responsibility in creation. Human beings have imagined that they would know these things by asking questions, by seeking to multiply knowledge, the idea being that when one has all the knowledge then one would be able to answer the questions and do what is required; but who would be doing it? The Creator or an imitation?—namely human beings exalting themselves into the position of a creator.
What are the foundations of the earth? There is a great deal of awareness of the earth and of the multitude of forms it takes, but what of the reason for all these things? Why do they exist? For what purpose? What is it that should exist in this way and what is it that should not? Do you not suppose that there are many things on the face of the earth that shouldn't exist? I am sure that human beings everywhere think that there is much that should not exist according to their view of the matter, but those views are usually contradictory—nobody knows. But there are those things that should exist now and there are those things that should pass away now. This is the creative process and it relates to the foundations of the earth, what is back of the forms everywhere around us. We are not properly dealing directly with the forms but with the foundation of the forms, for the foundation determines what the forms should be. The heaven is the reason for the earth, and there is One who is the reason for the heaven. When the earth reveals what the heaven proclaims, then the true creation is made known; and man is an essential part, not only of the creation but of the Creator. Creator and creation blend in man.
"Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" Have you ever experienced any sweet influences? There are many experiences on earth which human beings have deemed to be sweet. How much influence do these sweet things have over you? Your experience in the world has been largely subject to the influence of sweet things, the things that you deem to be sweet in your experience. Unfortunately human beings are very much aware that the sour comes with the sweet. Perhaps they may suppose that because of the sour the sweet tastes all the sweeter and therefore it would not be possible to know any sweetness if it were not for the fact of sourness. The question put is, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" Are you capable of handling those sweet influences without being subject to them, or is your experience one of a desperate chase after what you deem to be sweet? I suppose these things could be summarized with respect to eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—sex, in other words. Certainly human beings have devised a vast array of methods of generating sweetness, synthetic sweetness, saccharin. It is interesting that saccharin is now being banned, one method human beings have invented to bind the sweet influences.
While this question is asked of man, male and female, we may see how it particularly applies to the male, because one of the primary sources of the sweet influences is considered to be that which is provided by the female. Where are the men who are capable of binding that sweet influence? The voice of the Lord has long called for men on earth. The very fact that the One who came to offer salvation to the world in the direct sense was a man is indicative of the vital role to be played by those who might be classified as men. It is said that woman was taken out of man. The word "rib" is used to describe the basis for what occurred. A bone of the head wasn't used, neither a bone of the foot, but a bone of the apparatus which keeps safe the heart and the lungs—but we may think of it particularly in terms of the heart. Male and female were supposed to be one flesh, one being, a proper role to be played by each in relationship to the other; but the female was designed to keep a man's heart, a male's heart, safe. She has failed dismally in this. She is rightly the keeper of his heart, of his home, of his heaven. The male has been left without this protection. The female has been concerned for her own heart, her own home, and mostly her own hell.
Man is male and female. The female was called womb man, the means by which the heart, the home and the heaven might be kept safe. The female purpose was not to try to get anything from the male but to provide that essential enfoldment. She may consider these things, but the man may consider them also, because his responsibility is to bind the sweet influences of Pleiades in his own experience. This is not an instruction to try to dominate women. This is something which relates to men and what they know from within themselves. What is the nature of their attitude toward women? What is the nature of their own feelings toward women, and how much are those feelings allowed to determine what a man does? The world has been filled with violence, principally because of the weakness of the male. Weak people act in desperation. Desperate action brings violence, and the world is filled with violence, a reflection of the weakness of the male. Of course he displayed his weakness in the first place by forgetting his manhood and pandering to the female. That is the story of the fall, as it is called. He went along with the female who had lost her integrity, and fundamentally the male of the human race has continued this evidence of failure and weakness ever since.
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?" Can you stop being controlled by your desire, your lust for what you deem to be sweet? This not only applies to men. I have brought it to point with respect to the male attitude toward the female, but the female doesn't lack in desire and lust for what she deems to be sweetness. That's what she wants too. So her attitude needs to bind those influences so that they are not dominating the experience of existence.
The American Constitution says something about the pursuit of happiness—the pursuit of happiness, the lusting after sweetness. Man was designed to lust after the Lord. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." It leaves no room at all for all the worldly things after which human beings lust. The beauty of life for man could never be known on the basis of such reversed polarity, and yet how many have awakened to the truth of this, not as a theory but as a fact in their own living? What are the things that you want? What are the things that you think you must have? These are the things that control you, and human beings are controlled by things. No wonder they have become things themselves, pawns to be manipulated by other human beings; just things. Maybe this is what we should call human beings collectively: "things." But a thing has absolutely no basis for comparison with Man.
The sweet influences of Pleiades must be bound by those who have been willing to let this experience be known for themselves. We can theorize about it as long as we exist and nothing whatsoever happens. It only begins to happen when someone is willing to experience it, and again we come back to that little word "willing." That's all it is! Most people, if they were honest, would say, "Well, I don't want to experience it." They try to delude themselves with a surface display of theory, but underneath, "I don't want to experience it," is the attitude. "I like to be dominated by these sweet influences. I like to have my life bring the experiences of sweetness, even though the experiences of sourness also come." You can't have one without the other as long as these constitute the god, the lust after the things of the earth, particularly those things which are deemed to be sweet. The sickly sweetness of what may be experienced in this way bears little relationship to the natural sweetness which comes in the experience of Man.
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