To Pray Without Ceasing

To  Pray  Without  Ceasing

Martin Exeter   February 8, 1987

For long the earth has been a den of thieves, when it was created to be a House of Prayer. What is meant by the word “prayer”? If we do not know this how could the earth ever become a House of Prayer? Usually the view seems to have been that prayer is a way of petitioning some God for what is deemed to be desirable. Such an idea is very self-centered, to say the least. How could anyone assume that, if there really is a God, particularly a God of love, anyone would have to bend His ear to provide what those who were supposed to be His children really required? Of course this whole attitude is quite childish in itself. Children ask their parents for this and that, and so this attitude seems to be carried over by adults in their conversation with God, the idea being that what is needful hasn’t been provided apparently. This is telling God to smarten up, isn’t it, which seems rather a blasphemous sort of attitude and one which could hardly work in any case.

What is prayer? I think we could provide a rather succinct definition in this regard: Prayer is to be aligned with the creative process. To ignore the creative process and make demands upon some hardhearted God does not do any credit to human intelligence. I’m sure we all are well aware that abundant provision has already been made, not only here on the surface of the earth for the fulfilment of the creative process but everywhere throughout the whole universe. There is no lack. All is available that needs to be available in any given moment. This statement can easily be made—I am making it—but it is something that human beings particularly have opportunity of proving out. Obviously if we are intent upon making demands, whether upon God, or upon somebody else, or upon the earth itself, we will find ourselves out of sync with the creative process. No demands are necessary, and it is arrogance to make them. Of course the human mind looking around and seeing the lacks everywhere will dispute the fact that everything is already present that needs to be present. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-divine-organization-is-not.html]

The question arises as to what all that is present is to be used for. Why is it there? This planet has already proved itself to be immensely rich in a vast variety of substances, both mineral substances and living flesh. Human beings have evidently excluded themselves from an awareness of the reality of the creative process, in order to try to make things conform to their own desires and intents. The immense provision that has been available was certainly not designed to be so used. The earth is a den of thieves. Human beings are those thieves, who have laid claim to the riches of the earth, amongst other things, for their own designs and purposes. This is certainly not what the provision was made for. Insofar as the creative process is concerned virtually everything has been wasted, wasted upon human lusts. We have seen this more or less clearly in the larger picture, and in these days the chickens are certainly coming home to roost. It would be, and is, quite easy to decry what is occurring, but who is causing it to occur? It’s convenient to pin the blame on somebody else, but we know our own responsibility in the matter. This is presumably why we came to the point of questioning human behavior, even the best of it. I suppose the “best” of it was our own behavior! It usually is in the human view.

Having questioned what is taken for granted by human beings everywhere, we have gradually become aware of the fact that there is a creative process; there is something at work regardless of human beings. Having become somewhat acquainted with this we would, I’m sure, consider it very foolish to try to dissuade the creative process from moving in its appointed ways. If we were to succeed, actually succeed in this, the whole universe would be thrown into chaos. I don’t think that’s likely to occur by reason of anything that human beings could do. All that has happened is that human beings have thrown themselves into chaos simply by espousing self-centeredness, taking the attitude that “the earth is mine to do with as I please.” This is a general attitude on the part of people, but it’s a very specific attitude on the part of each individual, isn’t it? “I’m going to do what I think should be done.” Here we have this human-nature self exalting itself into the position which presumably should be held by God: “I’m going to run things here on earth.” And so it has been. But one would suspect that we are very close to the point where it may definitely be said, “There is time no more.”

For thousands and thousands of years human beings have had the opportunity to repent. It was brought very specifically to the consciousness of mankind at one point that “the kingdom of heaven”—whatever that is—“is at hand. Repent: for another state is available.” But no. Human beings have paid lip service to such ideas but continued on in their self-centered ways, making demands upon each other, making demands upon God, making demands upon the earth. The earth has been thoroughly raped in consequence. But now it seems there is some wakefulness coming, a recognition of the awful behavior of human beings the world around, particularly, I suppose you could say, in what is referred to as the civilized world. Civilized? It’s a destructive jungle. Is that judgment or simply observation?

“My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” What a very accurate statement. Our concern now is presumably to stop stealing for ourselves. Some people are more unselfish than others and they steal for others, as well as themselves. There is a tremendous hoopla going on now with this fine young man wheeling himself across Canada in his wheelchair to try to raise money, in order to deal with a human ill. But does anyone ever think about why that human ill is there? “Let’s behave in the same old way and continue to produce these things, and then find remedies for them.” That is thievery and dishonesty. But people enthusiastically follow out such schemes, imagining that thereby they are doing something very good, very charitable, when in fact it’s defying the creative process. “We’re going to behave contrary to the creative process and, suffering the results of so doing, we’re going to find the remedies for them, so that we can keep on doing what we’ve always done.” What a sad picture of the crowning creation on earth: rebellious, self-satisfied. Oh yes, it’s easy to see, but of course it’s not so acceptable, if anyone should happen to look in the mirror, because all mankind is tarred with exactly the same brush. Some have come to a point of revulsion that one could have participated in such a filthy condition. We can no longer excuse anyone, ourselves chiefly as individuals, for our supposed goodness in this evil world. All have behaved the same way. The den of thieves is everywhere.

What of the House of Prayer? What of the creative process, which ultimately will sweep mankind into oblivion unless responsibility is taken, at least by a few? From our standpoint, however many others there may be, we are responsible. We are as responsible as anyone else for the state of this world. We can blame our forebears; someone back along the way started the ball rolling. But every generation has picked it up, and we can’t go back anyhow. All we have is the present moment, and that is all that is necessary, because the abundant provision is present in the present moment. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-temple-of-light-is-here.html] The provision is for the creative process. If one is aligned with the creative process, then there is ample provision. There may not be all the things that human beings have become accustomed to, all the things they like, all the things they want, but everything necessary for human beings to play their part in the creative process is provided. But that remains an unknown experience if one rejects the creative process.

Outside of the creative process there is an immensity of lack. It was said in the Book of Genesis at the beginning of the creation of whatever: “The earth was without form, and void.” Well as yet it was outside of the creative process; the creative process hadn’t yet been initiated. Now human beings have removed it from the creative process, and so the void puts in an appearance: the state of emptiness, the state of lack. And people frantically try to design things so that everybody has everything they want. From the holler that goes up from people, all over this continent anyway, it would appear that nobody has everything they want, in spite of thousands of years of trying to get it! Isn’t it about time that somebody started to exercise a little common sense? Come into the creative process; come out of the lack of it. Good suggestion.

So there is the matter of praying without ceasing, of participating in the creative process, which never stops. It has always seemed to me an impossible task to pray without ceasing, according to the human concept of what prayer was. How would you do it? Well there are those who go around with their prayer wheels, and the wind blows them around. That’s praying without ceasing, according to their view anyway; others have beads. There are various methods, techniques, that have been devised to fulfil the requirement of praying without ceasing, but all of them have ignored the creative process. All of them have superimposed human views, human ideas, human concepts, of the way to do things.

But things are already being done by the creative process. Why not align with that and, thereby, finally come to the point of praying without ceasing? We don’t keep ducking out of the creative process whenever it happens to suit us. Of course at the time of ducking out we forget, apparently, that because we are doing that we are going to have to reap the consequences of doing it. The Law works, there is justice, everything is very fair. “Oh no, look at this, look at that, look at the other thing.” Well if you want to stay outside the creative process you can reap the results of so doing. But that’s fair; that’s very fair. And because mankind has been doing it collectively, it is being reaped collectively too.

We have to come back to the beginning, which is always with oneself. There is no other beginning point, as we well know. In any given moment there is no other beginning point but oneself. Whatever else may be going on, here is the only place where one can begin. I think we’ve all had sufficient experience of trying to make other people over, to realize that that doesn’t work. We can’t get the world to suit us. Let us accept the creative process, because the fact is we either accept it or else. We are free to reject it, and human beings have been doing that for a long time. The results have been apparent in every generation, but they are becoming much more widespread now, aren’t they? There are so many more human beings. And ultimately there is a point of finish. The results become so horrendous that nobody could survive. This has come over the horizon, hasn’t it? Always there was the expectation in the past that somebody was going to survive. But now, here we are, to pray without ceasing. Do you think that’s a tiresome business? Well it certainly would be if we had to do it in the old human way; but if it is simply alignment with the creative process, where is the problem? Well the problem is that I may still want to have my own way; I may still want to do my own thing; I may still want to achieve my own purposes—and of course we are all good people, so they are all good purposes. Such a state of affairs certainly takes one out of the creative process, and one can’t exist very long outside of the creative process. Everybody has been finding that out.

The lure of achieving something for oneself has been so strong that human beings have rejected the obvious way by which they might come to the point of life. It was said by someone who apparently proved it out: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Why are we come? To drain life away from ourselves, and from everybody else too? There are those who claim to love Jesus Christ. They evidently love they know not what, because where there is love there is the experience of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, which was revealed by Jesus Christ. One has to experience it for oneself. It’s convenient to say, “Oh well He experienced it; how nice. And that is salvation for us.” Nonsense. It is necessary to experience it for oneself: All the things that I do shall ye do also. The things that He did were done in the creative process; it was made abundantly evident. What about us? Where is the evidence? “Oh, we’re too humble.” Too arrogant, I would say. So we pray without ceasing, because we abide in the creative process. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/11/secret-of-power-2prayer.html]

I wrote down a few little—I don’t know whether they are gems or not—earlier this evening when I was thinking along these lines. And if I can read my small writing here, I will read what I wrote. This relates to prayer, by the way.

“Whatever arises”—and something is always arising in our experience moment by moment by moment—“whatever arises, let me dwell in the secret place of the Most High.” In the creative process the little word let always seems to occur: “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” etc. “Let me dwell in the secret place of the Most High.” The place is secret because it is my place. No one else can get into it. Someone else may have a secret place, fine; everybody does; if they would consider dwelling there they would find out. There is a place of stillness, a place of strength. So whatever arises, let me be there.

“Let there be a place of stillness in the midst of turmoil.” How? Because I am that place. That’s how it comes in the midst of turmoil. There is plenty of turmoil around; we don’t have to go looking for that; but how about bringing the place of stillness into it? Let me not become all excited and try to settle things, to straighten things out and get things the way I think they should be. Just let there be a place of stillness in the midst of turmoil. Too simple? Did you ever allow it to happen? If you did you know that it works. You may not have to say a word, you may not even have to do anything. Just let that place of stillness be present because you are present.

“Let there be a place of light amidst darkness.” There is plenty of darkness around. Most people are fascinated by it. A lack of understanding, a lack of awareness, of what it is that is really going on—darkness! We have come to an awareness of what it is that is going on because there some alignment, at least, with the creative process. That’s what is going on. All this folderol in the world of human beings means nothing. The creative process means everything. That’s going to prevail, after all. Do you think human beings could get away with their rebelliousness in this little pinprick of a planet in the midst of the universe which is governed by the creative process? Not on your life!

“Let there be a place of ease amid disease.” People everywhere are frantically grappling with disease, trying to eliminate disease without changing the cause of it one iota. The cause of it is the lack of alignment with the creative process. That is the cause of all disease, of all trouble, of all tribulation. Yet human beings insist upon maintaining their own determinations. Okay, one can do that; but don’t complain when the results come along! Complaining is one of the most popular sports on earth.

A place of order. “Let there be a place of order in the chaos.” Why? Because I am present. I am present, praying without ceasing, part of the creative process, aligned with it. Let it work. Stop imposing good human ideas on it. Oh most people daren’t stop doing that, principally because they have no idea that there is any creative process. We have come to the point of knowing better. Let us never deny that, but be true to the truth that we know. “Let there be a place of love and beauty in the midst of fear and ugliness.”

“Let my presence be a beacon of enfolding radiance in every circumstance.” Is that too much to ask? The creative process is doing it all the time, except human beings haven’t known it because they have blotted it out. Let us be willing to know it, that wherever we are we may bring life, and bring it more abundantly. This is a world of death. We cannot know life in a world of death. All we can know is dying. And that’s all human beings know. From the moment they are born, they are dying. The world that human beings have created, by their rejection of the creative process, is a dying world. In it, death is worshipped. Everybody is frantically trying to make something good come out of death. “Oh yes, after we die we go to heaven”—or the other place, as the case may be. I was going to say that’s not so hot, but it is!

So we pray without ceasing, aligned with the creative process, letting all the human efforts drain away, because we see so clearly where such efforts lead. Rise up into the experience of the creative process, which will occupy hearts and minds as they relinquish that human state of self. Then there is space, space to experience the natural flow of the creative process emerging through us, through anyone who will receive it, emerging through the consciousness of mankind to the extent that there is a willingness that it should, to the extent that there ceases to be persistence in glorifying the human self. The human self doesn’t belong on earth, and that will prove itself out in due course.

There is a truth that does belong in human form. Those who think of themselves as Christians are aware of two great commandments that were given in the past: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all”—with all. No one ever did that, did they? They were draining love off here and draining it off there. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all ... and thy neighbour as thyself.” This seems to have been taken to mean that it is proper that you should love everybody. But something specific was said here: “thy neighbour.” And there was an indication, a sort of definition given, as to who your neighbour was. The statement wasn’t: “You must love everybody.” It wasn’t that. “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And I suppose the definition of a neighbor is one who, to whatever degree, is allowing the creative process to work in his or her life. When that is so, the fact is discernible by reason of spiritual discernment.

There is something which flows between those in whom the creative process is being allowed to work. It can be sensed. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/07/from-house-of-communion-martin-cecil.html] There is a communion in the spirit of love. If someone is closed to the creative process, nothing is flowing; there can be no communion of love. So it isn't a command to love the unlovable. That would be an impossibility, wouldn’t it? The command is to love those through whom some measure of the creative process is being allowed to flow. If one is letting it flow through oneself, one will sense the movement of that flow through another. No judgment is necessary; you don’t judge anybody. You just find out whether the flow is there or not. I said in the past—and somebody took me to task for it—that those who deny the creative process, deny my KING, mean absolutely nothing to me. Of course! There can be no flow. That’s the way it is. It is a foolish fancy to imagine that one can love everybody.

There are those who try it mind you. Most don’t. It isn’t a matter of loving everybody. It is a matter of loving the LORD with all, loving the creative process with all; and if the creative process is working through someone, that will be included, won’t it? So there is no contradiction here between loving the creative process in one’s own experience of it, and loving a perception of it as it moves through somebody else. It is all the creative process, all loving the LORD with all. Of course there is always an enfoldment of love. Love is always available. The creative process is always available to everybody. And there is nothing to say, “Well you can’t have it; you can’t experience it.” It relates to what happens inside a person as to whether they accept it or reject it. Let it work. Let them accept it or let them reject it—we’ll find out.

Let the creative process work, and all things on that basis work together to perfection. But don’t slip in your two bits worth of good ideas to fortify the creative process. It doesn’t need your contribution. It will work the way it works, and we begin to discover what that is as we let it work through ourselves individually. Then we know what it is because it is expressed in our living, and we know what we express. The truth is known only in that way.

So it is well to put human nature, the human self, on the spot, which I have sought to do a little bit this evening. I'm sure you've all joined with me in putting it on the spot, for it only means something when you do it with respect to your own human self. “Get thee hence, satan." The devil, it is said, was a liar from the beginning. He is also a thief. That says something about human beings. But our concern is to restore to the LORD what is His.

Keep your sticky fingers off the creative process! As that is done, the creative process has a chance to move within the range of one’s own immediate experience, so that there is an increasing awareness of that movement. Somewhere along the way you will find increasingly that your hands are necessary to the creative process, but on an entirely different basis, because there will be an entirely different person present.

© emissaries of divine Light