The Design Of The Connecting Link
Martin Cecil May 16, 1964 pm
“It seems that it becomes my responsibility to draw attention, from time to time, to that which is emerging.
It is quite possible for others to be sufficiently alert to see some of these things which are emerging.”
Those who are concerned with serving the Lord are not playing children's games; those who are not so concerned are playing children's games. So much of that which passes for adult function in the world is not really mature in any sense. In order to emerge out of the childish games there must be an awareness of mature purpose. There is of course a mature purpose for all people if they will recognize it and accept it. Without that purpose, without an understanding of what it is, without intelligent function with respect to it, there cannot be mature living. It is bound to be a continuing pattern of children's games. We began to bring to point an awareness of mature purpose, defined in the words: to represent God to the people, and to represent the people to God. Man was created to provide this connecting link between Creator and creation but he went adrift; consequently he is not providing that link. Before he can be returned to the position where he might do so there is the necessity of providing a link for man, a connecting link between the Creator and the creation in the sense of mankind. So this is mature purpose now, and will remain mature purpose even when man is restored to the position of being that connecting link between the Creator and the rest of creation. It is a matter of representing God to creation, primarily at the moment to other human beings, and of representing creation—primarily at the moment that which is true of the Divine creation in man—to God.
This dual representation is based in the working of the Law. If we examine into the matter we will discover that it relates directly to the two great commandments. What is it that we represent to the Lord? We say we represent response. But what is it really? Is it not the fulfilment of the first great commandment? We bring love to the Lord. This is what we represent to Him—love. We represent that love which is in all people as it centers toward that which is Divine, and by reason of this phase of love there begins to be the experience of God's love for His creation. It is not that we rightly should concern ourselves immediately with trying to love His creation. We have noted this before. It is not a matter of trying to love each other, as though that were the first order of business. It isn't. The first order, insofar as we are concerned, is to represent such love as there is present in human beings, to God. We re-present it to Him; in other words we return it to Him. This is the opening of the door, so that there may be the beginning experience of representing God—representing love to God's creation all around us—and that is re-presenting it, giving God's love to the people. So we see these two phases of love working here in a manner which establishes purpose. Of course the mere statement of this purpose doesn't necessarily make it have meaning to human beings. There must be some experience with respect to it, the experience of representing others to God, representing only that which is of the true nature and character of love to God; and when we do that, immediately we find that the true nature and character of love is our own experience in expression to others.
When I said that the first order of business was the first great commandment I did not mean to indicate that this separated the first commandment from the second, because it doesn't. You can't open the door in representation of that which is of love in man toward God without in that very instant experiencing God's love in representation to others. There have been those who have made claims as to loving God, but the evidence of that love for God, the right representation in that respect, is the experience of love for one's fellows. All too many of those who claim to love God disprove their words because of their attitudes toward their fellows. If there is not love for others there is not love for God. Nevertheless, loving God, representing that which is of love in man to God, is the first order of business. We find it doesn't work at all to try to apply it the other way around, to say, “Well I'm going to love my fellows, and when I do I'll be loving God.” No, love God first. Love in the Divine sense is always characterized by Truth. This means that it operates on the basis of a design divinely established. We have taken note of something of this design in our consideration thus far. The design requires that we represent man's love to God, and doing so we represent God's love, or God Himself, to man. This is part of the design, and there is also the matter of control.
We might concern ourselves with the dominion of God: control—this word which is such a bad word in the human vocabulary. Control! It is strange how human beings rebel against the idea of control while constantly accepting control of one sort or another, and the nature of the control which is usually accepted is such a destructive thing. It is absolutely impossible for a human being to function without control of some kind. How wise to consider the nature of the control which we accept. Because much of the control which human beings accept is accepted automatically it is assumed that there isn't any. But it is there, and it raises hell; it wrecks human lives. So if we are considering love we cannot help but consider control, because truth characterizes love, and control is one of the elements of truth—control and design.
I wonder if I could consider something with you this evening, something which is of concern and interest, or should be, to all those who are associated with this ministry, to the extent that they have become aware of the real nature of it. We have noted that there is a design. If the truth is to be known the design must be known, because design is an element of truth. You can't know the truth without knowing the design, and you can't know the truth without knowing the Divine control either, because these are the two basic elements of truth. There is a design related to that which must take form to make possible a connecting link between Creator and creation, at the present time in the sense of mankind. That design cannot be ignored. So many human beings have sought to find a relationship with God just as individuals, and something has been achieved along those lines by people in every generation. Some measure of attunement with God has been established, but thus far it is quite obvious from an examination of the situation in the world that there has been no adequate connecting link established between man and God—nothing that is effective anyway. The reason is not far to seek, because it relates to this matter of design, and control of course. There is a design which must take form if this provision of a connecting link is to appear, and the design takes form of course through human beings. The connecting link only becomes a reality to the extent that this design for it is allowed to appear in form through those who are responding—those who are representing the response and love which is present in man toward God. The design may then begin to emerge.
Looking back into the historical record, there are some evidences of the nature of that design, because we know that an opportunity for the development of this connecting link was offered through the children of Israel long ago, and later through our Master's ministry on earth. In each case there was this mysterious number Twelve. There were twelve tribes and there were twelve disciples. These twelves indicate something of a design, a design which fundamentally relates to man's representation to God. This is the first thing which is necessary, isn't it?—the keeping of the first great commandment. It must come to point somehow. We have noted in various ways that everything comes to focus somewhere—there is a point of representation with respect to all things—a focus point.
While the representation of the creation to the Creator is the first requirement, we have already noted that the moment this is done, instantly there is the representation of the Creator to the creation. You can't separate the two aspects actually, even though the approach must come, insofar as man is concerned, from the standpoint of that representation which offers something to God—re-presents—presents again something to God. Man has not been presenting anything to God for a long time, at least anything that was worth very much. This relates to the twelve. There were twelve tribes of Israel, and the Priesthood, which was the Thirteenth, but reference is usually made to the twelve tribes. Then there were the twelve disciples, and our Master Himself who was the Thirteenth; but reference is usually made to the twelve disciples. Here we have the Pattern of Representation, as we have noted before: the Twelve representing that which is coming out of the world to be offered to God, and the One representing God to the world—the One, whether it is seen as relating to our Master when He was on earth or as relating to the Priesthood, the tribe of Levi in the pattern of the children of Israel. So we see here that the twelve does have a direct relatedness to that which is emerging out of the world. The twelve tribes of Israel were supposed to represent all mankind to God. We can say that there are twelve tribes of mankind actually. Now it is not our purpose to try to figure out what those twelve tribes are—how mankind could be divided up into twelve. That is not the point at the moment. There are twelve tribes of mankind. These twelve tribes, which include the whole of mankind, must come to point somehow. There is a Focus of Representation, and it is through this Focus of Representation that the design for the connecting link between Creator and creation takes form. So we have this aspect of the matter—Twelve. We can use the number twelve to symbolize this; not necessarily to symbolize twelve people, or twelve groups, or twelve tribes—there are these things—but the number 12 itself we could say represents man's representation of creation to God. There must be, then, a Twelve aspect to this ministry if it is recognized that the sole purpose for this ministry is to permit this connecting link to take form. This is the mature purpose. It is the only real purpose there is on earth for anyone. Most people don't recognize it; perhaps some of you have begun to emerge into an awareness of it—to represent the people to the Lord. This is one aspect of the design which must emerge through those who compose this ministry.
There is of course the other aspect, relating to the representation of God to the people. Now there is another magic number which is constantly repeated in the Biblical record, and in many other ways all around us actually—the number Seven. The number 7 represents the representation of God to the people. The number Seven therefore can be seen as relating to the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament pattern, or to our Master Himself in the New Testament pattern. Again we can say there must be, then, Seven Points of Focus, seven people, or seven groups, or seven something—which is true. But my concern at the moment is that we should recognize that the number seven itself is the symbol representing that which represents God to the people, whether we look upon it as a tribe or whether we look upon it as a single person. Everything comes to focus in a person somewhere, somehow, in all these things. But we need to see these two aspects brought to focus in the design of that which provides the connecting link between God and His creation. There must be that which represents that which is emerging out of God's creation to be offered to God, and there must be that which is of God to be offered to that which is emerging, so that there may be a point of blending, a point of union, which then establishes the connecting link. But it isn't a haphazard thing. It isn't something that human beings say, “Oh well, I'm going to serve God now, and everything's going to be wonderful. I'm going to be able to do marvelous things, and probably preach marvelous sermons and convert many people to marvelous beliefs.” No, it is not that at all. It is an actual function. It is an actual experience of something.
It is only reaching the point now where there is something emerging sufficiently in the design, taking form through those who are associated with this ministry, to begin to reveal what I am talking about. Otherwise it is bound to be just words, more or less meaningless. Human beings of course like words. They fasten on them very quickly and build up something in their own imagination, which then of course isn't the thing at all—it is just imagination. I am rather careful about not being too specific at the moment, because immediately specific aspects begin to appear human beings try to grab on to them, try to make something out of it. We don't need to make anything out of anything. All we are concerned with is to let something emerge so that it can be seen and understood because it has emerged, not because we try to figure it out and exercise our vain imaginations. So, contained within the scope of this ministry there are then, properly, these two aspects—a great deal more of course, but we are concerned at the moment with these two aspects: that which brings to focus representation of the creation to God, and that which brings to focus representation of God to the creation.
Now we can use various terms to describe these things. Of course we have here the negative and the positive aspects of something. The representation of God to the people is the positive aspect, and the representation of the people to God is the negative aspect; or we could say male and female, the dual pattern of representation which comes together in what is called “one flesh.” This has always been assumed to relate merely to what human beings call marriage. Well maybe it relates to that, or can, but it is far more than that, and marriage is virtually meaningless in the world of man until this more begins to emerge and take form so that the real purpose of the male and female pattern can begin to be understood. It is not merely procreation, although this seems to be the theme in the world nowadays. These two aspects, the Positive Seven and the Negative Twelve, must be contained within the form of that which is emerging through this ministry if this ministry has any meaning.
We can perhaps perceive something here, so that we can recognize a certain application. There has to be intelligent function and movement with respect to that which is emerging, and it seems that it becomes my responsibility to draw attention, from time to time, to that which is emerging. It is quite possible for others to be sufficiently alert to see some of these things which are emerging. We have this dual pattern of representation within the scope of this ministry. Of course we can take it to any level and see the same principles at work. We can see these principles at work, for instance, within the Unit as such, or we can see the principles at work from the standpoint of this Ministry as a whole as it relates to the response which is being represented to the Lord out of the world. This Ministry as a whole, in this pattern, would be the Positive Seven aspect of representation, and the Negative Twelve would relate to the twelve tribes of mankind as such. This design of the connecting link between Creator and creation must take form if there is to be a connecting link.
We have seen how things were worked out in the past in order to begin to develop something which would allow this connecting link to appear, and on every occasion thus far it has failed. The most recent example, of course, was nineteen centuries ago, at the time when our Master was on earth. He didn't fail of course, but that which He brought failed because those who were to give it form failed. It has been noted that when the disciples were gathered together after our Master's ascension they wanted to appoint another to take the place of Judas, and they found two men, which was the way it should have been—two men—because our Master was gone. Of course they did not have a clear awareness of the design. They wanted just Twelve disciples, but they forgot about the Thirteenth. The Thirteenth, we recognize, actually centered in the beloved disciple John at that time. However he was ignored, not acknowledged in that point, so it seemed to all concerned that there should just be one more disciple; so they cast lots and the lot fell on one and he was appointed so that they had twelve. But it didn't work, because it wasn't the design. There was only part of the design. If they had allowed the two to come in they would have had Twelve, and the Thirteenth, and they would have had the basic foundation for the development of this connecting link which makes possible the fulfilment of the purpose for which our Master came into the world. It certainly has not been fulfilled yet. It only comes on the basis of the design, and this is not a design that man can make. It isn't a matter of looking around and appointing twelve people and finding someone else for the thirteenth, and saying, “Now we've got the design.” It must emerge from inside. It must be something which comes down from God out of heaven, to take form through those who are willing to give it form.
There has been very little said concerning this design because of the tendencies of the human mind to get all distracted. In speaking of this now I am trusting you and others, that you will rejoice in a recognition of principle, see a little something of the application as it relates to our ministry, without attempting to fit yourself into it somehow. We can't fit ourselves into it. This is beyond the human ability. We can discover where we already fit, and that is a wonderful thing, but it is not based in human choice—“I want to fit there. I want to be near so-and-so in the design.” No, it has nothing to do with the human being as such. It is the Divine Design, and we have the opportunity of giving it form. And as it begins to take form, we find the detail emerging. It is all there but we can't see it now. Our Master said, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” It needs to be that we can see, and we only see that which actually begins to take form. We are not trying to delve into some mysterious heavenly realm and find out all these secrets. We are not needed in some mysterious heavenly realm. We are needed right here on earth, that that which is in the heavenly realm may take form here on earth. And it does so as we fulfil our purpose, and individually speaking we are required to represent the people to God and God to the people, represent love to God and to the people, but because we do love God first we have something to offer to others. And as we are faithful in this, individually speaking, we begin to find that the larger form of the collective organism, living organism, begins to appear, and if it appears because of us then obviously we have a place in it and we discover what it is.
© emissaries of divine light
