The Call To Greatness

The  Call  To  Greatness

Martin Cecil   June 15, 1969

The actual experience of Divine Being brings with it what I have referred to before as a sense of destiny. Each person, in the sense of being divine, is great. Because the human ego experience has been so strong, the reality of that greatness has been obscured and it has been assumed that it can only be found in human worldly affairs. A substitute may be found in this sense. This is all that has been thought to be possible to men and women. There are those who achieve what appear to be great things in the world of man; such people are acclaimed; but if the person's sense of greatness is dependent upon that, he doesn't know the reality of greatness. Regardless of what is actually achieved in the affairs of men, the person, from the divine standpoint, is great. This has scarcely been realized by anyone.

It is obvious that our Master when He was on earth had this experience of greatness and sense of destiny. This didn't come to Him because He achieved any exalted rank in man's world. This is not to say that He could not have done. Obviously, a man of such quality could well have moved to an apex point in the outworking of human affairs if He had been interested. That was one of the so-called temptations, wasn't it?—although it wasn't a temptation to Him. Human beings call that temptation, but to anyone who has any sense of true destiny it's not a temptation at all. The devil offered Him “the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,” and no doubt He could have risen to great heights in the devil's world. So the experience of greatness is not actually dependent upon external achievement in the ordinary sense.

We may well remember the experience of a man called Abram, long ago. This experience properly relates to all of us. But he was a man born into a household that could, in the external sense, have been classified as a great family, but he exhibited the capacity to accept something greater. We may recall how it was put as the commandment of the Lord: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” The country, the kindred, the father's house, referred, of course, to the earthly parents, heredity and environment. “Get thee out, and reveal your capacity to accept a Great Promise, a great state in the awareness of a sense of true destiny.”

This opportunity is extended to people everywhere. It has been extended to you. You have some awareness of this fact. Of course, it is not an invitation to get out of the heavenly Father's country, kingdom, or from the heavenly parents and kindred—just the earthly ones, so that we may cease to be slaves to the hereditary background, which is true of all of us. None of us could be here without a heredity, and none of us could be here without having experienced environmental conditions and influences all through life up to this point. These have tended to establish whatever we have been in the human ego sense. The divine invitation, of course, is to get out of that. We necessarily remain in the world but we need not be of it. In other words, we may relinquish our earthly parents in that sense. We must do this if we are to accept the heavenly parents of love and truth.

So this invitation has been extended to all of us, and presumably we have begun to move on the basis of the instruction. Somewhere along the way Abraham, as his name finally became, made contact with Melchizedek, the Priest of the Most High God. This was necessary to him, and it has been necessary to all the rest of us. But the presence of the Priest of the Most High God only has meaning to those who are already in the process of leaving their earthly father's house and moving toward the unknown country. When something is actually being experienced in this regard, then the presence of the Priest of the Most High God has meaning.

Clearly, Melchizedek had something to say to Abraham, even though it is not particularly recorded what he said. At least he brought Abraham assurance of the reality of the vision which he had and which was the basis of his movement to that point. I think you have found that to be so in your own experience. To the extent that you were beginning to move in the right way, there came a day when the Priest of the Most High God, in one way or another, assured you that, while most everyone else may have thought you were being foolish, that you weren't going to get anywhere, actually you were being true to yourself, you were, to that extent, accepting the reality of a Great Promise.

This, has to be done personally, individually. The individual has to do it for himself or herself. It isn’t just a matter of being associated with something that has the earmarks of being great. It is a matter of accepting the promise of one's own greatness for oneself, because unless that is done there is no manifestation of a larger program, of larger greatness. It is absolutely dependent upon the fact that there are individuals who have accepted the promise for themselves.

It is clear Abraham had that capacity, so that he was moving. He had traveled some considerable distance; he had run into various problems along the way; he did land up in Egypt at one point. It was at the time of trouble which came upon his nephew Lot that he finally made contact with Melchizedek. Usually there are such stresses and strains in the individual's life which finally bring a person to the contact with the Priest of the Most High God. You can all correlate this in your own experience.

I seldom say very much about my own background, but as an example of something perhaps it might be profitable to look at that picture for a moment, because it exemplifies something of the working of principle, the principle which applies with respect to anyone. As was mentioned this morning, I was supposed to have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. In other words, I had it made, apparently, right from the start. I didn't need to do a thing. When I was born, I was born into a family that had a certain position in the scheme of things, the structure of that particular country. That particular country at that particular time was still looked upon as being a great country, with empire and all. It soon disintegrated after I came. However, here was a country and a kindred and a father's house of very obvious hereditary dimension—a very clear-cut example of what was being referred to in the statement which Abram heard from the Lord: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.” Now, of course, usually when that story is read with respect to Abram, as he then was, people have an imaginary picture of the Lord somehow or other gaining his attention and telling him these things. But it doesn't really work that way, does it? I doubt very much, in his case, that it was something that could be compared to the clear-cut spoken word. I doubt if he really knew what he was doing. There was a compulsion, obviously, and he moved with that compulsion. But probably the reasons he himself would give as to why, at that time would not be based in any particular awareness that it was the hand of the Lord.

In my own situation, I was channeled into the Senior Service, as it used to be called: the Royal Navy. Everything was just beautifully set for whatever should unfold in the days to come, if I behaved as I should under the influence and guidance of my country, my kindred, and my father's house. But this was the thing that, insofar as my own experience was concerned, troubled me, because, while there was everything there apparently, I knew that it wasn't me. The easy way, in a sense, in such case is to accept the status quo and stay with that, but apparently there was a compulsion in me which in effect said to me, "You need to find yourself, and you can't find yourself if you're wrapped in all these swaddling clothes." Now this is something that needs to occur in the experience of anyone, because in one way or another there are ways by which we can fall into the general design and pattern of man's world. If we experience this compulsion, which actually comes from the Lord—though we may know it not at the time—we feel under the necessity of moving out from the control of such a state and condition. Now this obviously occurred in my own situation. It might not be quite so dramatic with some others, in the sense of geographical distance and the insignificant place that I came to, far removed from the great country which I left. Very fortunately I had parents in the earthly sense who, while they were undoubtedly a part of that old state, nevertheless had a certain vision. Perhaps, if there was a greatness in the country of which they were a part in days past—and there was certainly a wonderful potential there—it was because of vision of this nature, which didn't limit itself to a little back yard. So there was, actually, a place prepared here for me to come to.

“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and go unto a land that I will shew thee.” Well, in this instance I thought I was coming to a ranch at 100 Mile House. This was completely unknown land insofar as I was concerned, but it wasn't really the land to which I was being introduced, although I didn't know it at the time. After arriving at 100 Mile House, having gotten out of the country, and kindred, and father's house, I found myself very much alone in the external sense. This was good. But I was faced with various problems, stresses and strains of one sort or another during the ensuing years, particularly, of course, as it was at this time at the depths of the so-called depression, which didn't allow me to get set in some irrevocable position. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't enjoy it particularly, much of the time. There was always the opportunity to go running back to Momma, but it didn't work out that way.

As the stresses and strains continued to intensify, there came a time when I met the Priest of the Most High God in the person of Uranda. In that experience I found assurance—not exactly yet understanding what it was that was unfolding, fortunately, but recognizing purpose in the unfoldment itself. That contact with the Priest of the Most High God was absolutely essential to me, in just the same way that the contact with the Priest of the Most High God, whoever he may have been, has been absolutely essential to you. But it only had meaning to you to the extent that you were already moving under the compulsion of the spirit of God. You may not have recognized that that is what you were doing, but unless it was the fact of the matter the appearance of the Priest of the Most High God would mean nothing to you, as witness that it has meant very little to vast numbers of people. One must already be moving for that contact to have meaning. We need to see this in our service to others, so that we don’t try to force something down anybody's throat. If a person is ready to see it, he’ll see it. If he isn’t, you can’t make him see it, so don’t try.

This is all rather an interesting story, we could say a real-life story, isn’t it? We see the same principles operative in every instance where there was any evidence of sufficient response to let them work. Usually the response was totally unconscious. It well may be so. It is best that it should be unconscious to start with, because a person can then be maneuvered into position where he can’t escape. If the human ego sees what’s happening, it is liable to be out of there like a shot.

There was another interesting event which occurred along the way. I had an only son in the person of Michael. I had to make a decision somewhere along the way, in my particular circumstance, as to what should be done with Michael. It had been suggested to me that he might well return to the old country for his education and, presumably, to be indoctrinated into the patterns there of the country, kindred, and father’s house. This correlates rather with what happened with respect to Isaac, Abraham's son, because he was taken up into that mountain of old worship on the basis that, according to the highest vision of Abraham at the time, this was the thing to do. Now, when it came to this point in my own life, with Michael ten years old, I had to decide what the right thing to do would be. Uranda never said a word. All he did was, after I had made the decision, to say he felt that I had done the right thing. First of all, I couldn't see how letting Michael go to England was going to be of any value, in view of my vision at that point of the outworking of the Divine Design. He was going to be sacrificed. He was going to be lost. I am sure Michael, at the time, felt that I was deserting him, because that’s the way I felt myself! Yet, there was a compulsion there that this, under that circumstance, was the right thing to do—trust the Lord! So, he went up into that mountain, but it's quite obvious that he wasn't sacrificed. Fortunately the ram was there, caught in the thicket, and so he returned. An interesting parallel in the outworking of this particular cycle, which may have some significance in view of the representation here which concerns all who share the unfoldment of the Divine Design. The working of principle; you might say, “a recapitulation” of something, that everything might be established and done decently and in order.

Now, of course, this pattern has worked out in the past, up to a point, a number of times through various people. In no instance thus far, it is evident, has it ever carried through, and has, therefore, the one who carried the supreme responsibility at the time experienced the fulfilment. For instance, Moses never came into the Promised Land. Because of some failure on his part? Perhaps he did make a mistake at one point by becoming subject to the people. He lost patience, which, under the circumstances, I don’t think was unreasonable. That may have been a factor in relationship to the later outworking.

Of course, when our Master was on earth, while He could have carried things through so easily and so beautifully then, He was not permitted to do it. Clearly, then, we could cite many more examples—it has never been the privilege of anyone of those who carried the responsibility to experience the greater fulfilment. Of course, our Master experienced the fulfilment for Himself, as was the case in other instances too, but not for the whole, which is really the sole and primary concern.

I have a responsibility in this matter now. Whether it carries through with me remains to be seen, lam not particularly concerned in the matter, because it will carry through anyway, I am assured. It is the overall achievement of divine purpose that needs to be considered, not whether one personally is on hand for this or that but whether one has played one's part, one's part of destiny, in making the ultimate fulfilment possible. Every one of us who have any conscious recognition of these things now has a part of destiny to play in this regard. The awareness of this, of the inherent greatness that is now present, must come to the individual; because, if you do not have a consciousness of your own greatness, how can you be great? If your consciousness is of mediocrity, of smallness, that's all you can be. That's all that human beings have been.

Now, I cannot—nobody can—cause a person to have that sense of greatness. It is something that is already present with each one. It must emerge through the person. It emerges through the person as the individual is compelled along the way, without any assurance from anyone, as Abram was. Then the Priest of the Most High God puts in an appearance. But if the individual has not really been moving when the Priest of the Most High God does put in an appearance, or the movement has been inadequate, then there is a tendency to depend upon Melchizedek. You will note that Abraham didn't stay with Melchizedek. He had his own thing to do. He assumed the responsibility of that for himself. Now that assurance can be valuable to a person if the person will let it be valuable—the assurance that is brought by the Priest of the Most High God. But it is merely an assurance with respect to something that the individual has already been experiencing. It is not assurance that what is required has already been experienced, that that movement is going to stop and, somehow or other, what is now needed is going to be handed over by the Priest of the Most High God. We keep moving in the cycle that was already in motion for each one.

We need to see this clearly in relationship to our own experience, but we also need to see it clearly as we are in the position of serving others, so that, while we may convey the assurance, we need to be very careful that we do not allow anyone to assume an attitude of dependence. People will try to do this to you. You have tried to do it to me. Of course, onlookers from out there always are inclined to take the attitude that all you poor people are dependent on me, that you don't think for yourselves, you can't think for yourselves, you can't do anything for yourselves. It may have been somewhat true of some of you. I have not been able to stand up before the world and say it hasn't been true of anyone, but I could say it shouldn't be true of anyone. Because if it is, and is persisted in, we have nothing.

We are relinquishing the old controls, coming out of the old state, and accepting together new controls. Most people don't realize, in the world the way it is, that they are slaves to what is already in the world. They have a peculiar conceit that this is freedom. Everybody is controlled by everything in the world around them; they all bow down and worship the same holy cows, are governed and pushed hither and yon by these things, and then presume to judge that for those who begin to accept a control that does not come within the range of their experience this means enslavement. Well, we have to experience it to find out. It doesn’t do us any harm to be judged—one can ignore all that—provided that we are moving along on the right basis. But if the judgment happens to be true, then there is something very much wrong!

My concern has been to assist you and all who have been associated with our program into an experience of personal destiny, so that it is you who are great, regardless of anybody else, and that greatness is not dependent upon anything you may have done or anything you may do in the external sense. I have no doubt that in my own situation, if I had been interested, I could have gained a position of influence and responsibility in this country, and maybe beyond that. There are many others sitting here who have the capacity to do so in various ways. But this is not what brings greatness. If a person has the experience of greatness within himself, if he has accepted this promise, this destiny, then he doesn’t have to prove it to anybody; it is so. It will prove itself, but not according to the ways of men.

Perhaps, looking at the situation as it is developing in the world, there is less and less confidence displayed by people in human leadership. People become more and more disillusioned. Authority is being rejected, because there is obviously no one who has any basis of understanding. Everybody is working in the dark. Nobody knows what they are doing. “Well, let’s try this, or try that.” All the old methods and ways are not working any more. As there are those who begin to experience the true greatness, the true destiny, here are those who do understand, who do know what is happening, who know the direction in which the movement must go. Who else could be looked to?

So many imagine that somehow through politics the world can be saved, either through backing some certain party in the political system of the country concerned, or through subscribing to some particular political system in the world-wide sense. We have this clash between what has been called democracy (and that’s a misnomer) and what has been called communism (and that's a misnomer), as though one or other of these systems is going to achieve what is needful. It becomes more and more obvious that neither one is doing it.

If, for instance, it was assumed that somehow or other politics was the thing, and we all got into politics, we would be tarred with the brush of failure, because it’s failing and it must fail. We would fail too, because it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work through any human method or system whatsoever. There is a Divine Way—the way, the truth and the life. That's the way it works; that's the way it will work. Those who are experiencing this for themselves know it. They know what the way is, in other words; they know what the truth is; they know what the life is. That's all that we need to know. When people become sufficiently disillusioned with the imagined ways of success that men have produced, then what is there left? God’s way is left. Not that God's way hasn't been present always, but we are considering this from the standpoint of this way being present on earth, not in some far-distant heaven somewhere.

In our association with man's world, we need to be a little careful that we do not become too much identified with the patterns of our association. I am sure that Ross, for instance, could very easily move into the political field with a fanfare of trumpets, and he would receive a lot of support in this in various ways from various people. There are others amongst our numbers who could do different things. But if we ever become identified with these things as though that is the important thing, we fail—as though, for instance, Ross being Mayor is the important thing. It isn't! It isn't important at all! Neither is it important that he is manager of Bridge Creek Estate. It's important that he is a great person in the sense of being divine. That's the only thing that is important. That's true with respect to anyone. I don't know whether some of you are basing your greatness any more in external achievement, but you had better forget it, because it isn't there. The greatness may be revealed through certain external achievement, but one needs to be very careful that people are not allowed to imagine that the greatness is the external achievement. The greatness is the person.

Human beings can be rather easily fooled in this regard. “Well, I achieved a high position in man's world; therefore I must be great.” Oh, no! If that is the reason for a person's imagined greatness, he isn't great. The greatness is the experience of oneself, for that is already great. It is in this experience ourselves, individually, that we begin to allow something that is great in a collective sense. We can't have a collective state of greatness somehow and join it, join the club, so to speak; because the club manifests—the rod of iron, isn't it, a club, by which the world is ruled—by reason of the greatness revealed through individuals.

I draw your attention to this that you may, whenever a sense of smallness assails you, deny that self. Our Master said that we should deny ourselves. That's what He was talking about, this sense of pettiness, the sense of human futility, the sense of meaninglessness, the sense that one is not important in the scheme of things and one could just step out and nobody would be any the worse. Well, that is true for a lot of people, most unfortunately, because that is what they have accepted for themselves. It isn't the truth in the divine sense at all, because each one is essential, absolutely essential, and we must nurture this sense of greatness, this sense of destiny, that we are here to do something which has never been done, never yet been done. Wouldn't that require great people? Everybody, all down through the ages, has failed so far. This is not to belittle other people, because they have made it possible for us to start from this point. If they hadn't lived we wouldn't be here. So we are not downgrading anyone, but we're merely recognizing our own field of responsibility because of those who went before us.

Now, I am not suggesting that we should develop swelled heads or conceit of some kind. This requires the greatest humility. As our Master put it, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” But there is a sense of vast greatness nevertheless, and anything that detracts from that in one's own attitude, in one's own expression, is the devil in action. Let it go! Deny it! It's not true. Accept the reality of your own greatness, which is already present. I can't give it to you; you've got it. This is true of anyone. You already have it.

Those who are already moving under the compulsion of the Spirit must contact the Priest of the Most High God. Possibly that experience for them will be by reason of you. It cannot be by reason of you if you have no experience of greatness, if you have no experience of being a Priest or Priestess of the Most High God. So I would commend you to concern yourselves with this consciousness of greatness, remembering that it has nothing to do with the external circumstance. It is your own consciousness of greatness which may be expressed and revealed in the external circumstance, but it won’t be unless you know it yourself. Be true to that now and in each moment.

O Lord, we are responsible for the destiny of this planet on which we serve. Obviously this is not a little thing, neither is it, in reality, merely a fanciful thing. It is the truth. It is the truth for each one. In Thy name, O Lord, I commend this truth to the experience of each one, that there may be the increased knowing of the individual greatness, so that each one, individually, in humility may represent and differentiate Thy greatness into form and expression on earth for all who will receive it, that Thy children everywhere who are already being compelled by Thy spirit may have the opportunity of making contact with the Priest of the Most High God on earth. As the old state of human making disintegrates, the reality taking form on earth is revealed thereby. These Thy servants here, and wherever they may be, carry the responsibility for those who are already on the way, that they may not be left without the evidence of Thy presence available to them on earth. I thank Thee, O Lord, for all who have accepted the Way, the Truth and the Life, now, in this moment, and who will continue steadfastly therein in the days to come. The blessing of Thy love enfolds them, giving them power. The blessing of Thy truth is present with them, giving them dominion, in the Christ. Aum-en.

The greatness of which I have been speaking is not merely greatness in the eyes of others; it is greatness in one’s own experience of oneself. That is something that emerges from where this is already present within oneself, and, as I have emphasized, is not based upon the appearance. If one's sense of greatness, or one’s sense of worth, value, is based on an appearance, it is false. Whether anyone on earth ever acknowledges your greatness is beside the point. What is necessary is that you should experience the fact of it for yourself. If you do, of course, that becomes apparent, not because you try to impose it on anyone but because it’s there, to be recognized by those who have eyes to see. If they don't have eyes to see, they won’t see it, and that's all right too. It makes no difference to you as to whether anyone recognizes it or not; the reality is real anyway, regardless. It may be that the failure of human beings sometimes to see is a saddening experience, because you know the blessing that might occur if they only could see.

How quickly the world would change now, even as it could have done when our Master was on earth, if there were a sufficient number moving already under the compulsion of the spirit of God, so that there would not only be a recognition of the Priest of the Most High God what one might call almost a subconscious recognition—but a conscious awareness which brings the certainty of it to one's own experience, so that one doesn't have to keep being convinced. Of course, one always has to keep being convinced if one fails to allow the constant unfoldment under the compulsion of the spirit of God. But where there is a continuing movement in that regard, then the reality of Priesthood becomes known because one has the experience oneself; and one is in position, then, to recognize one’s brother, or sister, in the same experience. If one doesn't have it, or one has it inadequately, then one will have an inadequate recognition as it relates to someone else. The consciousness in this regard in the human sense is such an intangible thing. People sometimes scratch their heads and say, “I must have met you before, or known you someplace else.” Some who are caught in the web of fantasy say, “Maybe it was a previous incarnation.” But it's trying to define something which is indefinable, because it relates to the realm of cause and not to the realm of effects. It relates to the unobservable, and yet experienceable, because it is one's own experience of oneself and of the Self which is the experience of all in their differentiated aspects.

So, the Great Promise which Abraham revealed the capacity to accept is the same promise that has been offered to the children of men all through the ages to this hour, and is capable of being accepted by those who are willing to be compelled by the spirit of God.

© emissaries of divine light