We Need To Get On With The Job
excerpts from
The Spirit of Understanding and The Intervening Provision
Martin Cecil April 16, 1978 am & pm
We have a gathering here for the generation of power and beauty which may have an effect upon a large audience of human beings who are not present here in person. When there are those of whom it may be said they are with one accord in one place there is a creative facility available for the use of the Lord—true Cause. The expression of true Cause is present but virtually unknown insofar as human beings in the world are concerned, because they have become involved with another cause—the human mind. The human mind tends to think of itself as cause, but the mind itself is an effect. If an effect tries to play the role of Cause there is then a false cause present. True Cause remains beyond awareness and is excluded from any true expression in human experience.
That realm of Cause which already is a reality and always has been, may be referred to as heaven. Human affairs are restricted to the earth—there is a lack therefore of any real understanding of what it is that is transpiring outside of this restricted realm in which they imprison themselves. We have seen these things and recognized the futility of remaining embedded in that state. There is the necessity of coming out of it, of awakening, but the means by which we may come out of it is obviously not the false cause of the human mind. True Cause relates to true spirit. The mind is quite incapable of understanding or encompassing spirit. Spirit is quite capable of understanding and encompassing the mind. If you say “I don't understand,” you are saying that you are identified with your own mind. If understanding is based upon the ability of the mind to grasp knowledge then the real experience of understanding can never be known. Here is the mind again trying to be Cause when it is only an effect. The physical body of man is obviously an effect of something; the mind is an effect of something—something must be present if there is to be the possibility of mental function. If that something is not present, then all we have is a corpse.
Be careful what you say. Pause and consider. True identity is in Cause, in true spirit. If there is identity with true spirit then your words would be: “I understand. My mind may not be capable of encompassing this understanding, but I do not depend upon my mind to tell me when I understand.” The mind is capable of understanding certain things at a certain level but it very quickly gets out of its depth; and then it finds itself in a realm of fantasy, a realm that doesn't really exist in reality. We need to wake from this bad dream. The heaven is the realm of Cause, and our identity needs to be there. Then we understand. Understanding comes to the extent of purity of heart. By reason of this emotional capacity, we may move into a realm of Cause where understanding is and may therefore be the experience if our identity is there. You either know identification with Cause or you know identification with effect. Identification with effect is a state of darkness. The light relates to Cause—identification with spirit, the one place of agreement. There is only a true meeting in true spirit. True spirit is uncontrollable by the mind. The mind seeking to establish control over spirit loses true spirit and finds a substitute in its place, referred to as evil spirit, destructive spirit. Human beings are governed constantly by these sort of spirits—human nature. But why insist upon involvement with human nature when we may participate in the experience of angelic nature?
The word angel may be used to identify one whose identity is in heaven. If we experience our identity in heaven while we are living in form on earth then obviously there are angels present and in expression on earth—heaven and earth are revealed as being One. It is this reality in experience that allows the transformation of the consciousness of mankind—but not merely because one person has that experience. We could point to the One who was called Jesus and say, “There is the evidence of an individual who experienced identification in the realm of Cause while living on earth.” This fact certainly opened the door, but thus far virtually no one has gone through it. Everybody has fallen down and worshipped the door, if they have paid any attention to it at all. But a door is of value because one may go through it.
As there are those who do awaken to the true experience of identity in the realm of Cause it is because there is the experience of spiritual expression. We accept the responsibility in our living of giving expression to the true nature of Cause; and we are not always excusing ourselves by saying, “I don't understand.” Oh yes we do! We understand enough for the moment to give expression to true Cause at the level of our present experience. We have enough understanding of the quality of right spirit to give it expression. We also have enough understanding of the quality of wrong spirit to refrain from giving it expression. Angelic nature begins to reveal the true nature of the individual, and this can only be done in living—by expressing the true quality of life. Then life isn't a secret anymore.
As there are those who begin to let this happen agreement becomes a natural experience—agreement in spirit. This ministry only exists to the extent that there is agreement in spirit. There are those who have tried to make it exist on the basis of agreement in form, but scarcely anyone agrees on this basis. In true spirit there is agreement. This ministry has remained together because there was sufficient willingness to keep aligned with spirit, in which the agreement was. If we agree in spirit we find that there is a form which emerges in consequence, but it does not emerge because we figured it out with our minds. When spirit governs, the mind moves accordingly, and the understanding of the mind will be what is necessary to fulfil the particular requirements of the expression of spirit in the moment—and the mind in that case may say “I understand this much,” but it minds its own business and it doesn't try to understand something which it does not understand.
The agreement comes in spirit, and those whose identity begins to center there find themselves a part of something that reveals the design in spirit. There is a design in Cause, a design which when it is operative in the realm of effects allows the realm of effects to reflect the realm of Cause. What is needful is that true Cause should have opportunity of release into the consciousness of mankind—and that is not going to just happen. The yoke is easy and the burden is light, but it doesn't happen just by chance, because we would like it to happen. It happens because there is a fulfilment of the essential requirements. And those essential requirements relate to the realm of Cause.
There is an indication conveyed by words in the Book of Revelation—don't get hung up on the words—a couple of verses about coming up hither into the realm of Cause and becoming aware of certain things because of that. The description included something translated as Four Beasts, four living creatures. Sometimes, when we begin to think about the realm of Cause and the sounding of the Tone we may think of just one note. Clearly that would become tiresome after a little. There is a vast variety and it emerges on the basis of the fact that there are unique individuals associated in distinct configurations. There were Four Beasts described, four distinct configurations of angels incarnate in human form. What is being described as being in heaven is the authority and the government of God, the means by which Cause may operate in the affairs of men. Because true Cause operates in the affairs of men, true Cause will then operate beyond human beings in whatever the scope of their field of responsibility really is, and that may go way beyond the earth. The point is that this facility of authority and government should begin to be experienced by those who find themselves identified with Cause. There are these configurations of angels for specific creative purposes. Do you think we are all here by chance? You know better than that. Many human gatherings may seem to be by chance, but this isn't so with us because there is an understanding of purpose. We find ourselves associated with others in relationship to the fulfilment of this purpose.
You shouldn't think of purpose in terms merely of your momentary task. That is a part of the purpose, but there is far more to it than that. We are sharing a purpose, and the purpose goes way beyond whatever is done—and yet these tasks are necessary. They give us the opportunity to reveal in expression our angelic nature. If we do that then we begin to move in the greater purpose. The conscious mind may not always know what that is. It doesn't need to. It is fortunate very often that it doesn't know, because if it knew it would interfere. But you know in your identification with Cause. There is something beyond mental grasp, which is the true knowing. Then the mind can come along and play its part in the total expression of true Cause. That total expression is spiritual expression, the Holy Spirit, complete, not little bits and pieces. We have the opportunity of allowing various configurations to appear, not by reason of some idea that the human mind has but by reason of what is impelled by spirit. Then those configurations can be used for the creative purpose, and we may share in letting that creative purpose appear. This is the sole reason why any of us are incarnate on earth now.
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said,
Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven,
and One sat on the throne.
There is One who sits on the throne, not half a dozen. We have some awareness of the reality of the One Law, of the truth as it relates to what has been called focalization—this is a fact of life. The reality of the true Tone of Life is made evident because of this fact. There is One who sits on the throne. In order that this might come out of the realm of imagination into the realm of true experience the throne which is in heaven must be made known. The composition of that throne is angelic—formed of angels who function in heaven, the realm of Cause, revealing the reality of the One who sits upon the throne. It is because of this One, because of this Supreme Point of Focus, that agreement, oneness is made possible. This One who sits upon the throne we have seen as relating not only to an invisible point but to an undimensional point. The throne itself is dimensional—it is a reality in heaven, the realm of Cause for this earth. The heaven and the earth are the two aspects of the dimensional world, but the throne is set in heaven. This is certainly invisible from the earthly standpoint but quite knowable from the angelic standpoint.
There is a heavenly facility by which the One extends His authority and His government into the world. That authority and that government spring alone from that One. We may speak of that One, we may identify that One by using words, perhaps the Lord God, the LORD of Lords, the Lord of Love, but the use of words does not acquaint us with that One. We are only acquainted with that One to the extent that we are actually centered in that One, that all our love is offered to that One, nothing whatsoever held out. The whole capacity to love in the human sense must be yielded to the One who sits upon the throne if the first great commandment is to be kept. How is this to be done?
Is it a matter of endeavoring to love some invisible God figure somewhere? No. That would be an endeavor to love a concept of the mind. It certainly wouldn't be loving God. The only way by which we may love God is through the provision which He has made by which we might do so—an intervening provision. There is something between the yielded human heart and God, something to provide a connection. There is a reality in heaven. There is the throne, upon which the One sits. The throne is in the heaven. The One is above the throne. The only way by which one may come in yielded love to the One who is above the throne is by reason of the throne. We are using symbolic words to describe something here. There is a very specific configuration of angels who provide the connection between the One and the yielded human heart. This is not a haphazard jumble of angelic beings—there is a very specific configuration. That configuration was described in earthly terms; however there is something that can be spiritually discerned relative to what are spoken of as the Four Beasts. I am not ignoring all the other symbols that are used to complete the picture, but merely to look at something that relates to our own present experience.
There is the necessity for this throne to become known in heaven on earth. It is a reality in heaven already; it doesn't have to be made so. But because human beings have been functioning in the earth, in the realm of effects, utilizing effects as causes for their actions, they have been below the veil and the heaven has been unknown—the reality has remained unknown and must remain unknown as long as the earth of human experience is held out as something separate. The heaven is then hidden—there is a veil between. What is real must be experienced to be known and it can't be experienced as it is on the basis of imagination or an endeavor to believe something. Heaven is a present reality and the throne is present in the heaven. The design by which the yielded heart may receive the truth of heaven into spiritual expression on earth is present by reason of the fact that the angels who compose it are present.
We recognize those angels as being present insofar as we personally are concerned by reason of the fact of incarnation in human form. The presence of the angel in human form sustains the life in that human form and was responsible for the building of that human form in the first place. So certainly the composition of the throne is very close to each individual. The very Cause of life in personal experience is a part of that throne. As angelic expression begins to characterize our experience we begin to find ourselves associated with others who are experiencing the same thing—it naturally happens. We are concerned with what is the reality in heaven. Wisely we do not buck that reality. We accept the outer circumstance for what it is. Effective personal relationships emerge when we are not being ruled by our hearts and minds. There is the need for spirit to find expression, spirit which will govern the operation of the heart and the mind and the body. So, as ever, our concern is with true spirit.
If the world is to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne, there is only One Way, and that is through what has been spoken of as the Christ, or in other terms the Lamb, or in still another term, Shekinah. This is present in the heaven because of the angels who are present in the heaven, the angels differentiating the spirit of the One who sits upon the throne, differentiating that spirit in the heaven. The differentiation of that spirit doesn't change it; it merely causes it to be comprehensible. As long as it remains undifferentiated in the One it is not comprehensible. As it is differentiated by the angels in the heaven it becomes comprehensible, and the angels compose the design by which authority and government may be extended into the earth.
It is only on the basis of response because of the throne that anyone can be restored to the One who sits upon the throne. That is in fact the restoration—mankind is to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne. Restoration implies a coming again. This experience of being One with the One who sits upon the throne was known on earth before. It is known in heaven now. Because it is known in heaven now it can be known on earth now, and we have the opportunity of so yielding human hearts in love toward the One who sits upon the throne—but in a specific sense toward that configuration of angels which composes the throne. No man cometh unto the Father, unto the One who sits upon the throne, but by what intervenes. The angelic design in heaven intervenes. Human beings have been trying to come directly to God, usually on the basis of some imaginary figure, but there is only One Way—the Way, the Truth and the Life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The true angelic identity of the individual is the Way, the Truth and the Life for that person, and only through the angel is it possible to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne.
Collectively speaking we have spoken of the Archangel, utilizing that word to describe the focus of the collective identity in heaven—one might say the Throne Identity, the identity of the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne. The composition of this throne is of angels—angels in a very specific configuration. It requires a very specific configuration for the creative process to work. It was designed this way, but human beings have been trying to change the design to suit themselves. But the design in fact has not changed; it's the same as it always has been. If we begin to have experience of spiritual expression in living, so that we begin to know ourselves in angelic consciousness, we find that there are associations emerging—associations between angels. Necessarily the human element tags along, but the association is between angels if it is real, if it is a part of the design, if it is included in the throne upon which there is One who sits.
Now we find ourselves in these associations. If we lose our angelic vision and return to the human view then we discover that there are all kinds of things that are not pleasing or not right, we think, in our associations with this one or that one. The angelic association has nothing to do with human likes and dislikes. Human likes and dislikes will distract people from the experience of the angelic association. We are very much concerned for the clear experience of angelic association. In this regard, there are specific configurations. Four of them are described in this 4th chapter of the Book of Revelation—the Four Beasts, the four living creatures. This is not a complete description of all possible associations necessary to the creative process springing from Cause in heaven.
We have an association here—an open-ended association because it includes all who wish to be here. However, in the creative process there are associations which specifically include certain angels. We need to reach a point where we can assemble groupings of people without anyone who is not included in the particular grouping feeling that they are somehow being excluded or being put down in some fashion. Because of such reactions we have rather seldom been able to have particular configurations for particular creative purposes—the reactions of others who are not a part of the grouping would tend to nullify anything that was being achieved by the grouping—but there should be vastly more such groupings. As angels we have our parts to play and that's all there is to it, and we play our parts in relationship to others. If the creative purposes for which we are here as angels are to be fulfilled there is the need for a great variety of these groupings for very particular purposes. The human mind may not understand. Why be bothered if the human mind does not understand? Don't identify yourself with it and you won't be bothered.
We need to get on with the job, and as we do get on with the job, without indulging ourselves in any reactionary attitudes, there begins to be a more specific point of focus and orientation for human beings everywhere. It is by reason of these various groupings that people can be touched in various ways, depending upon what is present with respect to the angels concerned, the nature of the spirit that is being differentiated, and also taking into account the earthly heredity of the particular form of the individual, because we have our connections on this basis with people everywhere. We are designed to use these connections, but we certainly can't use these connections other than in angelic consciousness. Then we are no longer reacting all over the place. How does the human mind know where the angel should be? Let it work out on the basis of the angelic expression and it will be right. It is the fact of these various configurations that provides the means of connecting up with every aspect that is present in the consciousness of mankind, so that all who will may become increasingly aware of the specific nature of the connection with the One who sits upon the throne. No one can circumvent that connection and reach the One who sits upon the throne.
Human beings in their human nature patterns like to imagine that they have their special connections, but there is only One Way, One Truth, One Life, and it relates to identification with Cause—identification individually, in a specific sense, with the reality of one's own angelic nature; in the collective sense, with the Hosts of Heaven who are all already centered in the One who sits upon the throne and already differentiating that One Spirit. Because of this the restoration of man to his true state is made possible. We share this responsibility. It has been said that we need to grow up. That means that we need to accept the angelic identity. Then we know why we are here. There is nothing personal anymore. It is all included in the overall purpose of our presence on earth, and if we need to be a part of one group for a specific purpose and not a part of another group, well that's the way it is, that's what we are here for—and we begin to find out that we actually fit in these configurations. We discover that it is a most fitting state of affairs, a delightful state of affairs, and we see the creative cycles moving and unfolding in all directions, all coordinated by reason of the One Spirit which in differentiated expression is providing what is necessary on earth by which the transformation occurs in human consciousness and mankind is restored.
