I Of My Human Self Can Do Nothing

I  Of  My  Human  Self  Can  Do  Nothing

Martin Cecil  April 10, 1979  Assembly

Can you stand silence? Human nature usually feels quite uncomfortable. I am sure we all are very much aware that one has no freedom to do as one pleases in the state of human nature. We are interested in being Man, male and female, in which case human nature as it has been known in our experience must go. We cannot speak the words “Let us make Man” without first being Man. Let us be reminded that Man was created as a spiritual being with human form—this is where the human being comes in. “Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness.” Not the likeness of something merely human but the likeness as it is present in spirit. In the human sense there is no freedom to do anything, to be anything, to achieve anything. How much human nature is there still present in our own experience? Is there pride and self-satisfaction with respect to any so-called human abilities? As long as there is, human nature is not only present but dominant—still there is the sense of worth based in externals, based in human abilities. As long as that is there, there is what is called competition, there is envy, and there is jealousy. Sometimes such traits are described in acceptable terms, but as long as there is a promotion of human ability as though this was most important, human nature is dominating, regardless of any concept that a person may have about angelic nature. 

The true nature of Man is spiritual. Human abilities of themselves are worthless and should be allowed to recede into the absolute background if a person is ever to become aware of the reality of angelic nature. There may be a great deal of self-delusion in this matter, where because a person is fairly bright in human nature he imagines that that is angelic nature. Angelic nature is known in the expression of spirit. What the spirit will bring forth remains to be seen. Obviously something has been brought forth in human nature which is not a true expression of Man. Man is not present—so what is considered to be valuable from the human nature standpoint of human ability is not the genuine article. The angel is capable of using anything, but the angel has to use it for it to be worth anything. The angel will never be allowed to use human abilities as long as the human abilities are looked upon as being the important thing. We may say of someone, “He’s a very capable person.” There are lots of capable people in the world. The world has not been saved by capable people; the world is in the process of being destroyed by capable people. If we subscribe to this idea of the tremendous value of capable people we will participate in the destruction of the world.

It is something entirely different. The words have been repeated, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” These are very accurate words insofar as the true expression of man is concerned. It is a completely unknown quantity, even to all of us. Let us not delude ourselves into imagining that because we have certain abilities, and because we have been handling certain things that we have deemed to be spiritual, we therefore know the reality of Man—we do not. Human nature is still present and very largely dominant. In human nature, which is present and very largely dominant, we have rightly no freedom to do as we please, no freedom at all to do as we please. When human nature looks at a statement such as that, it imagines that life will become a desert. “Nothing will be worthwhile anymore, because it won’t be pleasing me anymore.” That’s it, exactly: Nothing will be worthwhile to human nature. Do you care? No doubt we will find out. But you know, if you are honest with yourselves, that a great deal of your doing is designed to please yourself. I emphasize this not in condemnation of anyone but in order that we may bring out the fact of the matter—and not fool ourselves anymore. I don’t know whether we could put it in terms of percentages, but I think it is well over fifty percent, that there is an endeavor to please oneself, perhaps not so blatantly as you can observe human beings elsewhere pleasing themselves—maybe it is more subtle.

Man is to be created. Not a creation of almost-man, but with pockets of human nature reserved, where the approach is to please oneself. Because human nature has been present, and still is largely dominant, humanly speaking there is the need for a great humility, to enter humbly into the Secret Place, acknowledging the fact that human nature has been very much present—and still is to a large extent dominant. We cannot experience the reality of Man as long as we fool ourselves. Often the attitude is taken that one is making progress, and we may perhaps even look at someone else and say, “They have certainly made some progress; there have been some real changes occurring there.” But do you think that human nature has anywhere near been dissolved yet in our own experience?

I do not wish to emphasize human nature. All I am concerned with is that we should be honest about it. Our concern is to emphasize the expression of spirit—the spirit of the living God. But as long as we give weight to our abilities in the human sense, no matter what those abilities are, and in whatever fields, we will tend to require the spirit to operate relative to those abilities. We will keep pushing our abilities in front of the expression of the spirit, and taking the attitude that if the spirit is to express, it must make use of these valuable abilities. In other words, we have the weight there, in the abilities, and not in the spirit. The spirit can use anything to advantage when allowed to do so, but if we only allow spirit to express in a pre-structured way, because of our pre-established abilities in the human sense, spirit can never find the freedom of expression that is essential to our creative purpose. The spirit of God must find expression on earth through the consciousness of human beings who are no longer pre-structuring what is to find expression.

This spirit is One Spirit, coming to focus at One Point for the purpose of being differentiated in the vast variety of individual expression—angelic expression, not human nature expression—but what that is is unknown as long as weight is being given to the elements of human nature. Pride and self-satisfaction are present in human beings, even in you—pride and self-satisfaction in your human abilities. The human abilities are inclined to preen themselves and to take the attitude at times that they are not being made use of adequately. 

This has occurred within the range of our ministry, hasn’t it? “I am being frustrated, being prevented from allowing my abilities to be used as they should be used.” Such an attitude is pride and self-satisfaction. “Look at my abilities! The Lord should be using them. They’re really worth something. They carry weight, they mean something.” And so the attempt is made to impose them upon the Lord. The individual is saying, “If I’m going to achieve anything”—and this is human nature speaking—“if I’m going to achieve anything, it must be according to the abilities which I have determined for myself are valuable.” How would it be if all of them were just ditched? Would you be there still? Now that’s a question! We would answer it, I am sure, with a great flourish of theory, “Of course! The angel is always there.” Who is the angel? Could it be said of us, even, that we have been maintaining angels unawares, because we put this great big fat human ability in front of everything? And then the individual who considers that he doesn’t have very much ability looks at all these fat ability-egos around and says, “Well what can I do?” In other words, he puts just as much weight in the fat human abilities as the people who think that they have them put in them. Everybody is hung up on this.

There is spirit, and if Man is to be created, the creation is by spirit. And it will not include the qualities and characteristics of human nature. “Well, if we didn’t have all these qualities and characteristics, what would we be? There would be nothing here!” Oh? Well, that’s where you put your weight then, isn’t it? That is what you suppose is the truth of the matter, regardless of any theorizing. To what extent are we aware of the fact that all things are to be made new? These words glibly fall out of the human mouth, but what do they mean?

In the passage from Revelation preceding this matter of making all things new, there was indication of the passing of the old—all the things with which human nature is familiar. The great abilities of human nature—I see them still paraded around a good deal. Ultimately we come to the point of acknowledging that nobody knows nothin’. There is great trepidation on the part of human nature to really accept the fact, and to approach the experience of the fact, because it requires the dissolution of what the individual has imagined himself to be—even with respect to all the spiritual progress that is supposed to have been made. Could that be relinquished? Behold, I make all things new. “Oh surely we’ve been participating in this process of letting all things be made new. There have been some changes that have worked out. We’re not the same as we were last year, or certainly not the same as we were ten years ago.” Well, who is?

We are here to be Man, and we don’t know what that is. There is only one way to find out, and that is to let the spirit of God create. To know what the spirit of God is in actual fact requires that the quality and the character of that spirit be present, in focus, so that it may be differentiated. In my own expression I have the responsibility of differentiating that spirit in a certain way which acquaints you with that spirit which is to be differentiated by you in a certain way. This is not a matter of trying to imitate me, certainly. There are those who have tried that with respect to me. We don’t want any imitations. We want the genuine article—the spirit of God in actual, absolute expression, through each one. This is the differentiation of the One Spirit—but there is One Spirit. And you cannot decide that you are going to differentiate it on the basis of your human abilities. It has nothing to do with your human abilities. The expression of spirit is of its own nature. And your human consciousness is not here to color and condition it according to what has been accepted in human nature as carrying weight. What is accepted in that way is the ability that the individual thinks he has. “Well if the Lord is going to accomplish anything through me He’s got to use my abilities.” Are you going to put the Lord on the spot, saying that He must do something the way you think He should? Our abilities, our human nature structures, carry no weight whatsoever insofar as the Lord is concerned. It is all part of this immense human structure that has been built on earth, this tower of Babel, which is absolutely meaningless insofar as the Lord is concerned.

Do you see that you still are inclined to insist that the Lord do what He is going to do by reason of your human abilities? That means that human nature is still dominant. Human nature is telling the Lord how to behave, how to act, how to accomplish whatever it is that is to be accomplished. Human nature may admit that it doesn’t really know what should be done or how it should be done, but “the Lord will do it, but only by using my abilities.” This is the state of affairs that has been prevalent in the experience of everyone—in varying degrees perhaps, but human nature has been there, the human ego has been there. 

“Gird up now thy loins like a man,” or a woman. “Well, how can I do that? I don’t know what a Man or a Woman is.” Good! This might be said to be progress. How is it going to be possible to do it? “By my spirit, saith the Lord”—only that way. When, as human beings, we acknowledge the absolute rot and corruption of human nature with all its vaunted abilities, there is a state of humility experienced, which allows a person to come into the Secret Place, the Holy Place. “Enter into thy closet, and shut the door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.” We have become aware of the awful arrogance that has been taken for granted in human nature with respect to human ability and how we have indeed taken the name of the Lord in vain by saying in effect, “Come, Lord, you express through me just the way I am. Make use of my human abilities.” And probably the idea is present in human nature that it knows how those abilities might be used to better advantage. “But the Lord doesn’t let me do it!”

I am not the least interested in putting human abilities to work—supposedly for the Lord—if by doing it it is going to perpetuate a nonsensical human ego. In making Man, human nature must be dissolved. And so we are considering human nature and recognizing its presence, and seeing clearly that it must be dissolved. As long as we fool ourselves into imagining that our human nature is angelic nature—“After all, we have made so much progress as we have come along the way; we have made so many changes that this human nature is really angelic nature now. Isn’t that nice?” But it isn’t. It is still human nature.

We at least, presumably, have an awareness of what constitutes the genuine, even though we may not have all that much experience of it. We have that much advantage—the willingness to let our treasure be in heaven, no longer in earth, not even in the highest pinnacle of the temple in earth. I am sure you know, in theory at least, that human nature is not here to be pleased. We are not moving in a creative cycle that is going to satisfy human nature. I wonder how much expectation there is in this regard. “My human likes, my human desires, are going to be satisfied by paying attention to spiritual things.” This is the attitude that vast numbers of people have when they turn to spiritual things. They may not recognize it for what it is, but that is exactly what it is: the endeavor to satisfy human nature, to make it comfortable, to make it happy, to make it feel that it is really achieving something. If one can provide a program in the world the way it is that achieves these ends, you will have a tremendous following. Everybody wants their human nature to be pandered to, to be satisfied, to make it feel that it is worthwhile somehow. If the truth is presented, then not too many people are interested.

I praise the Lord that, in spite of human nature, you and a number of others have continued to evince interest even though nothing was being offered to satisfy your human egos. However, there has been a little something going on, on the side, which has been designed to find ways and means of satisfying the human ego, of making human nature feel more comfortable, and even making it feel it’s really achieving something now. After all, we have reached a point where we are saying, “Let us make Man.” Do you think human nature is going to make Man? It has been trying to do that for a long time and only has succeeded in making what? A beast. As has been said before, only God can make a Man.

The LORD God, the spirit of the LORD God in action, creates. And we are concerned with letting the spirit of the LORD God be in action. But that action comes on the basis of the spirit itself and not on the basis of already-existing human abilities. No amount of human ability is going to achieve anything worthwhile. There have been very able people in this sense all down through the ages. Historically speaking they are sometimes spoken of as giants striding across the land—usually leaving devastation behind them—human nature in action, the devil in action. The devil has a vast array of human abilities. But the spirit creates. The spirit knows the reality of Man. Without the awareness in human consciousness of the corrupt state that has been present in human consciousness—often glorified on the basis of human ability—only when it is seen as corruption, as filth, as rottenness, will there be any willingness on the part of the one who sees to let it be dissolved.

There will be humbleness, a humble attitude, one might say “repenting in dust and ashes,” because it is such a horror to be made aware of this. Human consciousness rightly is devastated by that awareness: “O Lord, forgive me! I didn’t know what I was doing.” That is the human self finally coming to the awareness of its complete worthlessness. It is only at that point that the truth may begin to emerge into experience, uncolored, uncluttered, unchanged—its beautiful self! And when that truth fills the void of human consciousness, void of any sense of worth or ability or anything else, there is the experience of newness—something new, something unknown, something that has never been experienced before. And here is Man putting in an appearance as he really is.

Let us make Man. Let Us Be Man—be men and women enough, to start with, to acknowledge how arrogant and how corrupt we have been heretofore. “Father, forgive us, for we knew not what we did.” When we are willing to receive forgiveness and to reveal the truth, then we may offer forgiveness, and share in the continuing creative cycle by which Man is made. The arrogant and corrupt human nature must be cast down if Man is to rise up.

We have this opportunity together, to open our hearts in thankfulness for what has been made available to our awareness this morning. Human beings usually only want to give thanks for the things that are pleasing to human nature. What we have become aware of, if it is of any value, is most displeasing to human nature. Let us give thanks for an awareness of what the facts are. Let us give thanks that we need no longer stay subject to self-delusion. Let us give thanks that we see clearly enough that we are in no position to judge anybody else. We have no desire to do it. In human consciousness we are in a sense so devastated that we would not dare to do it. When this is the actual experience it is cause for thankfulness, because at last human nature has been exposed in our own experience for what it really is. We have talked glibly about the devil, but that is exactly what it is.

“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; and his mercy endureth for ever.”

We may be grateful for that fact. It has endured to this moment, otherwise there would be no chance. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” We begin to see what redemption really is. We are made acquainted with “a horror of great darkness,” as it was put at the time of Abraham on one occasion, a horror of great darkness—human nature—not as a theoretical idea, not merely as words, but as the fact in our own experience. We are aware of what has been cluttering up our earthly consciousness, maintaining the rule of the devil. The devil has been able to fool us into imagining that he was an angel of light and that we were really making progress in human consciousness, while it was all human nature still, the promotion of human nature, in robes of light of course.

But all things are to be made new. All this passes away. This is all part of the first heaven and the first earth. The new heaven and the new earth—what are these? The Lord reveals these by the action of His spirit when His spirit has a means of action undistracted by the human nature concept of its own ability. “I of myself can do nothing. I of my human self can do nothing.” Is this an acceptable statement insofar as we are concerned in this moment? Does it mean something to us in fact? Or do we still have a niggling doubt in the matter? “I think I can do something. I’m sort of quite able in this field, you know.”

“I of myself can do nothing.” If that was truly what the Master said when He was on earth, how can we be so arrogant to say that where He couldn’t do anything of His human self, we can? Isn’t this the attitude that has been taken in religion: “Yeah, we’re able to do something. Of course the LORD will back us in our doing if we make sure that it’s pretty good what we’re attempting.” How horrible! No. Let us share in letting all things be made new, aware that eye hath not seen nor ear heard, knowing that we don’t know what it will be, but it certainly will not be what we thought it was going to be, because what we thought it was going to be was based in human nature. Let us acknowledge that we don’t know, but let us acknowledge that we have the ability to allow it to be made known, to the glory of God. Praise the LORD!

Obviously something has been accomplished which would enable us to receive what has been brought this morning. But what has been accomplished eye hath not seen nor ear heard. In other words you do not know what it is that has been accomplished. You have had theories about it, you have had concepts about it, and you have dressed it in the forms that you have established in your human consciousness, structured forms borrowed from here and there to make it seem as though something was being accomplished. “Well,” we may say, “yes, something was being accomplished.” But it wasn’t what you thought it was. The “something” that is being accomplished is being accomplished by spirit and not by the human mind—not according to even the best ideas that it may have. It is something entirely different, something new, something unknown, something that bursts forth into awareness at some point when the human nature state has been dissolved, which it hasn’t been yet.

© emissaries of divine light