Let The Shackles Of Self-Centeredness Be Shattered
Let The Shackles Of Self-Centeredness Be Shattered
from Look Up
Martin Cecil February 20, 1972
Out of God the cosmic cycles of creation spring. The power and dominion of God emerge into the universe of time and space consistently, and the evidence of this is a vast and unending diversity. All that man is capable of observing is contained in this creative expression of God. Human beings on earth today are increasingly aware of an intensifying experience of destructiveness. We have used the analogy of an explosion to portray what is occurring in this regard here on earth within the range of man’s direct experience. If, however, we recognize that all springs from God, what appears to human beings to be a destructive explosion must be, in fact, a creative experience in the unfolding divine design.
An explosion occurs because there is a very rapid expansion of gas, we will say, within a rigid container. When the pressure of that expansion is sufficient to shatter the container there is what we would call an explosion. That explosion is a destructive thing as the shattered parts of the container in turn create havoc in the environment. However, it is possible to control an explosion as, for instance, is done in the internal combustion engine, so that what otherwise would destroy the engine may be converted into useful power which will achieve some particular purpose. We may see something of the same principle at work in the working of God’s power throughout the universe and in the affairs of men, because there is dominion, there is the means by which control is maintained, so that the power generated may be applied to a useful purpose. The useful purposes of God are, in a general sense, beyond the understanding of the human intellect, but the fact that they are not humanly understood does not mean that the useful purposes of God do not exist. The very fact of what appears to man as an orderly universe gives evidence of control and power. Power and dominion from God are quite apparent in the universe of time and space.
When we come to the affairs of men we find that there is in the attitudes of human beings a tendency to resist the power and dominion of God, presumably in favor of the power and dominion of man. The power and dominion of man, such as it is, is a subversion of the power and dominion of God to purposes largely unrelated to the purposes of God; the purposes of man are substituted. This establishes a state of resistance to the power and dominion of God working through the cosmically ordained creative cycles; consequently the pressure builds, and we find the cause of the explosion already at work. There is an expansion of the spirit of God within the container of man’s self-centeredness. This expansion of the spirit of God is partly consequent upon the vastly increased number of people on earth. No individual would exist if it were not for the presence of the spirit of God; therefore if the population is multiplied the presence of the spirit of God in form is multiplied also. The pressure increases. It becomes a seemingly painful and disruptive experience to human beings who compose the container in which the pressure increases. It is subject to stresses and strains. It begins to buckle here and there. Human endeavor is mostly given to preserving this state of self-centeredness and consequently to endeavoring to repair any breaches that begin to appear in this self-centered container. But there must come a day when the pressure is more than the container can hold. At that point there is a climactic experience as the container of self-centeredness shatters.
Because human beings are self-centered, concerned with themselves and with the world which they have made on earth, they are more or less oblivious to the implications of the increasing pressure. All that is observed are the stresses and strains caused by that increasing pressure, and because the polarization is in external things the awareness of the results tends to obscure any consciousness of the cause. People scurry around in the world trying to settle what they call their problems. These problems range from those of the individual in a petty personal sense—although the individual doesn’t usually look upon them as petty—to the larger problems which include massive groups of people or even the world as a whole. Virtually all the attention which human beings give is centered in these things. The question is asked, “What can we do about this? What can we do about that?” in the external sense, “How can we solve this problem? How can we solve that problem?”—the idea being that if the problem is solved, then the self-centered state is successfully maintained. Actually, of course, we begin to see that it is the failure to solve problems that permits the self-centered state to pass away. So, most of human energy is designed to maintain the self-centered state by solving problems. Nothing much else occurs to anybody who is self-centered. But we need to see clearly that the reason for the so-called problems, the reason for the stresses and strains in the self-centered state, is the internal expansion of the spirit of God.
Out of God the cosmic cycles of creation spring. Nothing else springs out of God but that. These creative cycles are entirely constructive. They are designed to achieve what may be called the purposes of God, purposes which are, as I said, to a large extent incomprehensible to the human intellect but there nevertheless. As human beings in the self-centered state, we find ourselves identified with the pattern of resistance to that expansion and we consequently experience the inevitable stresses and strains. We may acknowledge that there is a shattering event yet to come, because the explosion has already been initiated. The pressure is building and nothing will stop the building of that pressure until the container shatters. The container is the state of man’s self-centeredness. People tend to become frantic as they feel the pressures building in their own experience. The problems seem to multiply. Sometimes the problems can be identified as this or that; sometimes there is just a general state of increasing malaise: everybody becomes certain that there are problems but they can’t really identify them too clearly. Of course, in specific instances people imagine that they are able to put their fingers on them; but, here, we see what is happening. There is a passage in the Gospel according to Luke which relates to the external experience.
“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Here is the creative aspect of the outworking. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
Presumably these words were being spoken to those who were interested in the power and the dominion of God. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” Most people are not inclined to agree with that conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer. Humanly speaking, it is said, “For mine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for as long as I last.” That is a lie to start with; the kingdom is not “mine.” It takes a tremendous amount of effort to preserve self-centeredness, and the self-centeredness is shattered in the end, inevitably. We are living at a time on earth when this shattering of self-centeredness is approaching for mankind as a whole. It has occurred consistently all down through the ages insofar as individual human beings are concerned; now it comes to the whole works. When this begins to be seen as happening the instruction is: Lift up your eyes, lift up your heads, so that there may be a centering in the cause rather than in the effects. Being centered in the effects there is reason to weep and wail, there is reason apparently for hearts to fail with fear, there is reason to be overwhelmed. However, if the cosmic cycles of creation do proceed from God there is in reality no cause for alarm; only cause, in fact, for thankfulness. It only seems a devastating experience to the extent that we attempt to maintain self-centeredness, to the extent that we are centered in the world of self-centeredness which man has created. To those who are so centered it seems as though everything that makes life possible on earth is passing away. There is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in consequence; all is darkness. People in general have not yet faced the facts in this regard, so the hopes of the human heart are sustained: maybe we can succeed in maintaining self-centeredness and surviving. The two states are incompatible. Self-centeredness does not survive. All that results from self-centeredness is disintegration.
God survives! The cosmic cycles of creation that proceed from God survive. The proper results of those creative cycles in the whole universe survive. So, while it is necessary to recognize what it is that is occurring in the experience of mankind on earth, immediately the door opens to a new heaven and a new earth, the door opens to identification with the cosmic cycles of creation, so that we might find our association with these. If we really are identified with God, then we are delighted with what is occurring. We can no longer be deceived into feeling badly about the tribulation, about the shattering of the container of self-centeredness. However, if we are a part of that container, then that shattering experience is indeed disaster.
We haven’t, of course, come to the point where the shattering in the worldwide sense is complete. In one sense it has only just begun. If, however, we consider the outworking of things in cosmic terms, so that a thousand years is as one day, then what would one hundred years be? Almost an instantaneous experience, wouldn’t it? An explosion is looked upon as being instantaneous, but it isn’t. It follows out the cycle; it takes time, in other words. The outworking of things in this explosion occurs in the twinkling of an eye insofar as the cosmic clock is concerned. We see it happening, and while it takes years from our standpoint the time involved is really nothing. It is an explosion. Of course, there is an ultimate point where the shattering occurs very rapidly, even in our eyes. Let us be found centered where we belong by then!
We may, if we will, find identity with cause. In so doing we begin to have a perspective viewpoint. We still stand in the present moment but we may behold what it is that is occurring. Our vision sees, first of all, the effects around us, but then we begin to see beyond the effects to the intensification of the power and dominion of God on earth in the human population. We begin to see how this cleanses the earth of the self-centered state. In doing so, undoubtedly it cleanses the earth of a lot of human forms; nevertheless some flesh remains “for the elect’s sake.” The elect are those who find their identity in the cause rather than in the effects, so that there is something stable, unshatterable, on earth. This is not unshatterable in the external sense but in the internal sense, in heaven. The elect are finally gathered, you may recall, according to the record, from one end of the heaven to the other. This is heaven on earth, the invisible experience on earth where the concern is not with the effects, where the concern is solely with the cause. The cause, being the cosmic cycles of creation emerging out of God, produces the right effects. We are not required to judge the effects but to let them be whatever they are. Our concern is simply to be identified with the cause, to maintain that identity regardless of what occurs environmentally.
We had better find a stable footing in that regard while the environmental factors can still be lived with, even though there is some self-centeredness remaining in us. If we wait until the point is reached where the environment cannot be lived with if we are self-centered, that would be too late, wouldn’t it? That point comes, not necessarily at exactly the same time for everybody, although ultimately it does. But we do have the opportunity of standing in the Holy Place, identified with the true cause emerging out of God into the world of space and time, into the heaven of our experience. Only as we can abide in that heaven regardless of what is occurring in the earth may we be accounted among the elect for whose sake the days are shortened, by reason of whom the outworking effects of cause may be achieved very rapidly. Because of the rapidity of the outworking some flesh may be saved. If it drags on too long everybody has had it!
There was indication in the Book of Revelation that what was symbolically portrayed by the great red dragon, which deceived the whole world, was cast out of heaven into the earth. The heaven on earth, in other words, became the habitation of true cause in the experience of man. This dragon in the earth raised a very particular hell for a while because he knew that he had “but a short time.” In other words, in the outworking of this shift through the consciousness of man the results which occur in the experience of man, in the earthly sense, are painful. Because they are painful, of course everybody is inclined to resist them to try to stop the pain. Actually the resistance is what increases the pain.
This is very clearly demonstrated in childbirth. If the mother-to-be doesn’t understand and is not trained adequately in an attitude and an ability to cooperate with what is occurring, the reaction is to resist it, and it is this resistance that produces the agony. It is man’s resistance in his self-centeredness to this birth of a new state which is appearing on earth that causes the human agony. If we recognize the value of what is called “natural childbirth” in the individual sense we may see that this does have a relatedness to a natural birth in the collective sense insofar as mankind is concerned. That birth could be relatively easy if there were cooperation with it. It is going to happen anyway, and there is no way by which mankind can be given a shot, rendered unconscious, while the job gets done. Our concern rightly is to find a centering in the cause and to move with the cosmic cycles of creation. Then that is found to be easy; not only easy but delightful and fulfilling.
If a person looks at the world the way it is in the external sense he would be hard put to imagine how the outworking could be delightful and fulfilling. A person who is in the agony of childbirth without any ability to cooperate in the process cannot imagine how this experience could possibly be delightful and fulfilling, and yet here we have a truly creative experience occurring in the world. We begin to know something of its wonder as we return to the place where we belong, to stand in the Holy Place, participating consciously, actively, in the cycles of birth. We see what is coming, looking beyond the immediate experience in the external sense to the delight and the fulfillment which is inevitably the result of the movement of the cosmic cycles of creation emerging from God. This does not mean that we are trying to live in the future. We live now. In our cooperation with what is transpiring we may enjoy the experience of living now. But the very moment we begin to accept an attitude of self-centeredness we will suffer the consequences. There is no exemption from the consequences of self-centeredness for anyone who is self-centered.
So we come again to stand in the Holy Place, identified with cause, observing the effects of the working of the cosmic cycles of creation as they come to focus through us here on earth. We know that the state of self-centeredness must pass away. It will give way, it will be shattered. For those who insist upon being identified with that state, that certainly is a very painful experience; but when self-centeredness is gone the wonder and the beauty which emerge into the universe of time and space from God take form. The material for that formation is then freely available, because the self-centeredness which kept it fixed in humanly devised patterns is no longer present. Everything is free to move easily and joyously into the true design of being on earth. The power and dominion of God come again into the conscious experience of man. The world which takes form is then the world of God.
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