This is the Word of the Lord
excerpts from
Shekinah Fire
Uranda June 15, 1953 Class
We should at this point be able to clearly see, comprehend, accept within ourselves, the fact that the Christ Body must necessarily have particularized factors in it, even as they are present in your individual physical body. We cannot disregard the principles of life and function as they appear in the individual physical body when we begin to consider the physical formation of the One Christ Body made up of many members. And anyone who attempts to develop a body of power—as in a church or a philosophy or a pattern of teaching, or anything else, ideology of any sort—any individual or individuals who undertake to produce a unit pattern of function, while disregarding these principles, must surely fail. We have seen it happen in the past; we have recognized it in relationship to the outworkings of history. It is only as we allow these same laws and principles to work in relationship to ourselves as many members of One Body that we can begin to be the means by which the power manifests. This is to say, then, from the standpoint of the Unit pattern, that there is a particularized manifestation of the Shekinah Fire and Light and Cloud in relationship to each of the seven levels of Being. This trinity of the Shekinah Fire, or the Shekinah which signifies the manifest Presence of the One Who Dwells, is something that needs to be clearly comprehended, and how to convey it to you so that you can feel it and know it from deep within yourselves is something of a problem.
The spirit of God as such has virtually no meaning to human beings. The meaning begins to appear as the differentiated aspects of spirit appear. The meaning of God begins to appear to the children of men as the differentiated aspects of God appear through men, because God can have no true meaning to us except as He is revealed through the human form. And as long as you try to comprehend God without regard to the human form, as something above and beyond this realm in which we live and dwell, you will fail. So you begin to see that you cannot in any true sense comprehend God in reality except as He is made manifest through human beings. We must recognize that it is the differentiated aspects of God made manifest through human beings which permit us to begin to comprehend God in reality. And as the spirit of God can have no real meaning except as it manifests in its differentiated aspects, we begin to see the Secret of the Shekinah as the Secret of Focalization from heaven into the earth, and differentiation in relationship to the practical aspects of living. The Shekinah is the Point of Focus between heaven and earth, that which is of heaven brought to point for its manifestation on earth, and from that point expanding outward again into the patterns of life.
At the point of its manifestation of its essence, the distinctions, the different qualities, cannot be readily recognized. We see it as a Fire. But you begin to see the differentiations. If you remember this, you will understand all the foolishness that manifests with respect to human beings; and you can lead them step by step to a point where they can begin to see other differentiated aspects. They do not have the perceptive ability to see the Shekinah Fire yet. Do not try to get them to. How long did I talk to you before I ever mentioned it? It is not something that I just suddenly thought up or discovered or heard about. I have known about this Fire all the way through. I use it all the time, every day; and in actual fact, every time I come before you, in a class or a service, I begin to work on the basis of developing that Cloud and letting you be in it to whatever degree your response will permit—you will be in the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah. You may not see it, but you can reach a point where you can see it and it is wonderful. The Cloud you sense through feeling, to start with. Finally you begin to have the ability to see it, and to hear it; for there is a sound in it. But don't go trying now, because if you try to see it you will not; if you try to hear it you will not. You have to let it appear. And remember well that wherever there are vibrations of conflict, resentment, any ill attitudes whatsoever, you keep yourself shut out of the Cloud of the Shekinah and contain yourself in the cloud of darkness. Wherever there are resentments, frictions, conflicts, within or without, within the individual or between individuals, you cannot know the beauty and the wonder, the glory and the peace, of the Shekinah, the manifest evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, everywhere, always.
The Privilege of Understanding
The Responsibility of Doing
Martin Cecil October 30, 1983 a.m.
“The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.” His holy temple is a flesh body composed of human beings through whom His Word may be spoken, and heard in the silence of the earth. This is the Word of the Lord: “I came forth from the Father, and came into the world many centuries ago through a particular flesh body. I offered the way of salvation to the children of men on earth. I offered this to those who were in best position to receive it. The way was rejected: I was rejected. I accepted into my own body the unregenerate state of mankind. I was condemned as mankind is condemned. I was crucified as mankind must be crucified. I was placed in the tomb even as mankind must go into the tomb. I came forth from the tomb in the resurrection, thereby opening the way for mankind to come forth. A place has been prepared. The way is open. Behold, I have set before you an open door.”
These words have not only been spoken to you who are here present this morning but have also been spoken by you. In these moments we stand in the earth as One Body, not only composed of you who are here present but of many more who have understanding. We arise and ascend into the hill of the Lord, that we may stand in His holy place. The Lord is in His holy place: let all the earth keep silence before Him.
The Word of the Lord can be spoken on earth only as there are human beings to do it. That Word is powerful and creative. That Word is truth. The words of the Lord that have just been spoken are indeed the simple truth. Some of these words are understandable to anyone: others of them are in varying degrees incomprehensible. What indeed is the resurrection? There have been those who have attempted to explain away the occurrence in supposedly understandable human terms. The vast majority have accepted it, if they have accepted it, on blind faith. Something was supposed to have happened to Jesus, so that His body came forth in the resurrection; but what happened, how, is incomprehensible to the human consciousness. Of course, because human consciousness has never experienced it. There is only one way to discover what the resurrection is, and that is by experiencing it. It cannot be successfully explained ahead of the experience. Of course not, because it is unprecedented. There was one individual precedent: that One knows what it is. The precedent must now be set through the body of mankind. For this to happen there must be One who comes in the name of the Lord. That One may initially be one person but subsequently includes others who compose the body through which the Word of the Lord is spoken. That body knows the truth of the moment. What other truth is there? There are those who think of the truth as relating to the future: What shall happen? What is going to be? There is no future except in imagination. This is the reality. This is the truth now. The truth is known now! The way is known now! Life is known now! We have surely awakened to this.
The human mind is fearful, as it well may be, looking upon those things which seem to be coming in the earth; but the truth is now, the way is now, life is now. The One who comes in the name of the Lord insists upon the truth of the present moment. There is with that an awareness of the inevitability of the creative process. If one is associated with the creative process now and it is experienced now, it is inevitable now and it is inevitable in all the days to come, in all the nows to come. The truth is acceptable now. The truth is adequate now. The way is clear now. We move in it together in the flesh.
All this implies that there is a point of focus. We have been aware of this. In times past we have been offered the opportunity of discovering what it means to function intelligently in a pattern of focalization. We may not have done it all that intelligently; we may have resisted it and rebelled against it. But ultimately there must be the full experience of blessing the One who comes in the name of the Lord; only so can there be a sharing in that coming. If we understand this from the standpoint of our own experience, for it is indeed emerging with increasing clarity, then we know that the same is true with respect to the rising up of the body of mankind. There must be a point of focus for them. This is the One who comes in the name of the Lord. For this to have creative meaning to others their attitude must be: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Some undoubtedly are inclined to say, “Cursed is he.” Others heretofore have ignored him. Because of the increasing unification of the body of mankind—willy-nilly, whether anyone likes it or not—it is less and less possible for anyone to ignore what is happening. “Choose you this day” is also the Word of the Lord to mankind: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” To understand what these words mean there must be present on earth the evidence, the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Originally the Lord Himself provided that evidence, the evidence that was rejected, but now the provision is made again in a different way, in a way that is without precedent. The way, the truth and the life is proclaimed by reason of the fact that there is present a flesh body of focalization. This fact can only be proclaimed when that flesh body is humble—humble minds and gentle hearts; so may the Word of the Lord be spoken on earth, so may there be the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Have we learned to acknowledge the essentiality of right association with focalization? If we have not done that within this body, how could the body of mankind be expected to do it? What elements of resistance, rebellion, resentment, still remain to dictate to us out of our minds and hearts? Such may be present as yet; earthly heredity has not been dissolved, but surely it shall not control. Only because there is understanding acceptance, acknowledgment, of the fact of One who comes in the name of the Lord can there be a body present on earth which proclaims that truth for others. And there is no way by which salvation may come on earth except there is the attitude, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” an attitude to be experienced by those who are open to the experience in the body of mankind. To have that experience there must be One who comes in the name of the Lord. In humility and quietness of spirit, this truth is surely acceptable to us in this hour now.
The One who comes in the name of the Lord comes with passion for the truth, and consequently with fire, the fire of love. There is indeed something to occur on earth that necessarily is without precedent. Some suppose this occurrence to be a so-called nuclear holocaust. We know the truth in this matter. The precedent is the fire of God’s love in the truthful expression of our own living, the fire which is capable of consuming the fears, the hates, the resentments, the envyings, the greeds, that are present still in our own hearts. These can only be dissolved by the fire. Presently there are two ways by which this dissolution can occur. The creative way leaves human beings still present on earth. The other way cleanses the earth of all unrighteousness, but who is left? Let the fire of love intensify in our own hearts, governed by the truth in our own minds. Heretofore our experience has been somewhat lackadaisical. Sometimes we find ourselves put on the hot seat and we probably quite quickly repent, but how long does that state of affairs persist?
We find the whole world moving toward an unprecedented experience. This was illustrated somewhat by the plight of the children of Israel when they came to the edge of the Red Sea. They were between the Egyptians and the sea, and there appeared to be no way. Nowadays we talk about being between a rock and a hard place, and are beginning to find out what that really means, where to human vision there is no way. This is the state of affairs consequent upon the command: “Thus far and no further!” In the case of the children of Israel something happened. They found that there was a way, but they didn’t for long continue in that way. This presumably is illustrative of various occasions in the ages gone by when the human race was subjected to cataclysmic experience but still survived. It wasn’t long after the flood, according to the story, before people were complaining again, bickering again, fighting again, displaying the traits of human nature that have persisted down to this very hour. But there does come a time when there shall be time no more, when it may be said, “This is it! Shape up or ship out!” We are aware of what it means to shape up. Most people presently are not. If we do not do it, who will? Then the other experience comes: ship out.
The Lord apparently stated when He was on earth, “I go to prepare a place for you.” This has been variously interpreted. But He was speaking about what actually happened, what happened through His own experience. The place was known by Him by reason of the resurrection, so the way was prepared, the place was prepared, was henceforth available to be known, the intent being that it should be known totally by the body of mankind on earth. What would constitute the body of mankind at the time that it was known could hardly be prognosticated: that will prove itself out. We are facing facts, not fancies. And so we, knowing these things to the extent that we do, carry the responsibility. The privilege of knowing carries the responsibility of doing. A certain awareness of these things is subconsciously present in vast numbers of human beings. Privileges require the acceptance of responsibilities, something that has almost totally been ignored by the vast majority of human beings on earth. We have a spectacle of this ignoring in what is going on close to home: self serving, an unwillingness to face facts. Surely we have faced facts to the extent that we are aware of the privilege of understanding and therefore of the responsibility of doing. This is the easy way. This is the open door.
In this hour we not only stand at the door and knock, that it may be opened for all mankind, but we let it be opened for ourselves individually, that the truth may come forth in creative expression moment by moment by moment in the natural cycles of our living, whatever the circumstances may be, as we find ourselves present to get the job done. We do not judge our circumstances. We do not judge other people. We simply do the job without shadow of turning, without resentment, without condemnation, without self-pity, without any of the usual human reactions. These mean nothing to us anymore. The former things pass away because we let them go, because we are fully occupied with the expression of the truth, the qualities and the characteristics of love. Because of this we know friendship, increasing oneness with all those who have the privilege of understanding and consequently have accepted the responsibility of doing.
There is no question as to the creative nature of the outcome. We would not question it. We would not be so brash as to try to find out what it is. Just let it be. That’s all we can do anyway in the moment—let it be. Let the truth be, in the reality of spiritual expression momentarily: and behold, the creative power, the fire of love, prevails. The former things pass away and all things are made new. Again, we recognize it is not all new things—all things are made new. It is the transformation, the transmutation, of the things that are. These are made new because there stands on earth in power and great glory One who comes in the name of the Lord. Let the fire of love consume all that rightly passes away, that those things need not be consumed in an external fire. The One who comes in the name of the Lord speaks the Word of the Lord: “Behold, I make all things new.”
© emissaries of divine light
