The Fear Of Being Hurt
Uranda made a few comments before reading aloud
the transcript of January 8, 1953 by Martin Cecil at 100 Mile House,
to the Class at Sunrise Ranch on March 9, 1953
Man, being negative to the false positives of the world, has violated his agreement with God, and by responding to that which is falsely positive, man gives his lifeblood to that false positive. We come to recognize that it is the good people of the world who maintain evil. At first that may seem like a shocking statement, but you will find that it is true.
It is the good people of the world who maintain evil.
Those who are dedicated to evil would soon disintegrate and destroy themselves and be of no effect if it were not for the response of the good people by which evil is maintained in continuity. So evil, any evil pattern, whatever it may be, acts as a vampire, and the individual who responds to this false positive, whatever it may be, whatever form, is giving his lifeblood, his life force, his life energies, to that false god, and he is not worshipping God. He is violating his agreement with God; he is setting up a false god, and he is offering that false god the blood sacrifice of his own life. That is true with respect to all evil; the results manifest to varying degrees, or with varying speeds, but the principle is true with respect to all evil.
Once you realize the working of this One Law, and the absolute nature of it, that it works at all times, with respect to all circumstances, with respect to all things—it never ceases working; its operation is as certain as the rising and setting of the sun; in fact the rising and setting of the sun depends upon the working of that Law—once we actually realize this, we see that man has violated his agreement with God. But when we begin to honor that agreement with God, something begins to happen.
The Fear Of Being Hurt
Martin Cecil January 8, 1953 100 Mile House, B.C.
The true vine is One Vine, one formation, One Body, and it has One Spirit, the spirit of our LORD and KING. That spirit characterizes the Body. The parts of the Body are included in that One Spirit. If we consider a human being, with his physical body, there is a spirit that characterizes that human being. One might say that each part of the body has a spirit—the spirit of the eye is different to the spirit of the ear—but all parts of the body share in the spirit that characterizes the body. When there is response to God, and the development of spiritual perception, upon meeting an individual through whom the spirit of our KING is manifesting, you recognize it. The spirit of man is the vehicle by which the spirit of God may be revealed on earth. In the vast majority of human beings the human spirit has become the means by which the prince of this world is revealed on earth. The spirit of man has become the spirit of the adversary instead of a revelation of the spirit of God. But even in the fallen state there is that spirit which characterizes each one. One hears the remark made, after meeting some friend after many years, “Still the same old Joe”—the same old spirit characterizing the individual. And so we recognize that a body is characterized by a spirit, and the Body which the true vine is is characterized by the spirit of our LORD and KING. All the parts of the Body share in that spirit, so that in fact it is the collective spirits of all the parts that reveal the characteristic spirit of the Body on earth.
The fact that there is One Spirit has led at times to some peculiar reactions on the part of those who observe the manifestation of that one spirit through the developing formation of the One Body. Down at Sunrise Ranch, for instance, there have been some—not necessarily living on Sunrise Ranch, but those who observed from outside—who take the attitude that the spirit which finds focus in Uranda is a dominating thing which causes all those who are a part of the Unit down there to be subservient to him. Of course it is not just limited to those who are down there, as far as that is concerned. In several instances, at least, I know that I was included in it, so that I was supposed to have lost all individuality and independence, and just to be a rubber stamp, so to speak, for Uranda. Just how that works, when for most of the time we are seventeen hundred miles apart or more, would be difficult to comprehend; and just how I would be able to meet and carry the responsibilities of leadership in relationship to this Unit on such a basis would be difficult to understand. And yet that has been an attitude that has been taken by some. I have no particular objection to it myself, but when that same attitude tends to appear with respect to you in your relationship to me, I do not like it too well, because it implies that you are all some sort of wishy-washy nincompoops, without any individuality, without any common sense. In my estimation, anyone who knows you could not, with any smallest degree of honesty, assume any such ridiculous attitude.
And yet, there is One Spirit. Because that spirit finds a point of focalization in relationship to myself human beings are inclined to jump to the conclusion that, as a human being, I am dominating you in some remarkable fashion. Just how it could be done on any such basis I don't know. But fundamentally, what is the reason that human beings come up with such farfetched and ridiculous ideas? Primarily because they do not know the meaning of the word agreement. If I do what Uranda wants me to do, it is simply and solely because we are in agreement in the matter. Why? Because the same spirit that finds focus in him finds focus in me, and the same spirit that finds focus in us finds focus in you. To the degree that it is so, consistently, we are all in agreement, and that is something that human beings cannot understand, because the whole pattern of human life in self-activity in this fallen world is based in disagreement. The reality of agreement is not just with respect to the political party we are going to vote for, or what we are going to do on some holiday outing—just agreement in this or that small section of life but great areas in which there is no agreement—but is an agreement that extends to every corner of life. And that agreement can only extend to every corner of life as the One Spirit is allowed to permeate every corner of life. When it does there is agreement. That agreement is not something that just appears on the basis of discussion. On many occasions we have discussed various things and have come into agreement with respect to them. That is one phase of the agreement. But the agreement is present, properly, regardless of whether there is any immediate means of outer communication or not. If the agreement that I have with Uranda was based upon the letters that are written back and forth, that agreement would not cover very much territory! So the only basis for true agreement is as the One Spirit controls in the individuals concerned. When the same spirit controls in all concerned there is agreement. To the degree that other spirits control in any moment, there will be disagreement.
What was it our Master said? “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” He is in the midst of them because His spirit is in the midst of them. His spirit is the basis of the agreement, and the agreement is not only between the individuals concerned but between the individuals and the spirit of God. He is in the midst of His Body, and by reason of agreement within the Body, He acts through the Body. We were considering the fact, the other day, that in a little baby there is a lack of physical coordination; in other words there is not agreement yet between the various members of the child's body and the spirit of the child. It is only as that agreement begins to develop that we have a coordinated body. As we come to the point of physical maturity, with an adequacy of mental and emotional maturity, there is a manifestation of coordination to a goodly degree in the human being, in his body. He can do things, and his hands do what he wants them to do, etc. In other words there is agreement of all the parts of his body with him, with the spirit that is in him. So it is on the basis of agreement that we find the reality of control being established in the Body.
“If two of you shall agree on earth.” Of course those two are not any specific two, except insofar as you may recognize that there is agreement, for instance, between Uranda and myself, and there is agreement between you as a Unit and the Unit at Sunrise Ranch. Two. Do you think the Master said two just by chance? No. He was pointing to the way, the Divine Pattern. And of course we have recognized, also, the two of you as an individual—your mind and heart, which must be in agreement with the spirit of God in you. So it is the fact of the spirit of God in the Body that permits agreement to manifest. It makes it unnecessary, then, to try to agree, to endeavor to figure out some compromise pattern which will enable all of us to agree. That is what human beings try to do in the world, in their endeavors to establish what they call peace: to find some compromise pattern in which everybody will agree. Even if they do find something, the agreement, generally speaking, is only of a temporary nature. So, trying to agree is futile. The only way is to let the One Spirit manifest through each. Then there is agreement, because the spirit agrees with itself. Our agreement, to the extent that it is made manifest, is simply on that basis. Because that spirit finds specific focalization in me in relationship to this Unit, that same spirit in you is in agreement with me, and as long as that agreement prevails there can be no conflict between us, or between you as individuals. As soon as any other spirit enters in, begins to control, then there is a basis for disagreement.
There is one spirit that we might well give a little consideration to tonight, which causes a certain amount of trouble in virtually all human beings. We know the fundamental part that the spirit of fear plays in human life. We recognize that practically all human motivations, however beautifully they may be dressed up by the rationalizations of the human mind, are based fundamentally in fear, and if fear controls, certainly the spirit of our KING is not controlling. I am not suggesting that the motivation of fear is a conscious thing all the time—oh no—but it is there. There is a particular fear to which I would draw your attention, and that is the fear of being hurt. I do not mean, necessarily, the fear of sitting in the dentist's chair, but the fear of being hurt from the feeling, emotional, standpoint. That fear is a fundamental, motivating factor in virtually everybody, because the individual back along the way, particularly in childhood, has been hurt, and I suppose the natural reaction at such a time is to endeavor to avoid such hurts in the future. But you see, in such an attempt the individual is being controlled by the fear of being hurt, and it is a destructive control that prevents the spirit of our KING from taking control.
The fear of being hurt! On the basis of that fear the individual has built up various protective devices, various ways by means of which he may, as far as possible, avoid being hurt, escape. And of course, from the standpoint of living life in the fallen state, we would not bring such attitudes into condemnation. The individual does not know anything else to do. If you have an exposed nerve in one of your teeth you avoid biting on that tooth. But still it does not alter the fact that if the fear of being hurt is controlling, the individual is not under the control of the spirit of God. So when we come to the point where we are in position to let the spirit of God control, where we begin to become aware of the reality of the spirit of God, and of the way, the truth and the life, then that motivation of the fear of being hurt needs to be dealt with, because it is no longer necessary.
Within the scope of the pattern of truth there is no hurt. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” The truth, reacting upon the truth, does not hurt anything. Using different terms, in the Kingdom of God there is no hurt. “And there shall be no more pain.” So we recognize that coming into the Divine Pattern, we are coming into a sphere of things where hurts cease to manifest. What is it that causes the individual to be hurt? First of all it is evident that the heart, the emotional realm, must be open toward something other than the pattern of truth. The hurts that are sustained in the heart of a child are consequent upon things coming into it out of this distorted pattern in the human world. Such hurts are not consequent upon anything that God has done. But when there is a hurt it makes a scar, or we might say that there is a distortion pattern established in the heart, and that needs to be healed. When the individual is afraid of being hurt his attitude is one of endeavoring to protect himself, or to escape, or both, from that which he thinks is going to hurt him. If we recognize that the hurt in his feeling realm is a distortion pattern that should not be there, then instead of trying to escape, the proper attitude is that the necessary action should be taken by which the distortion pattern may be replaced by the pattern of truth. If the individual is controlled by the fear of being hurt, that will not be his attitude, because he will be busy trying to escape, or trying to protect himself. So there is a need, then, to recognize this motivation in relationship to oneself, of the fear of being hurt.
We recall two statements that Job made. Firstly he said, “That which I feared has come upon me,” and secondly he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” That which the individual fears comes upon him because he is responding to it through his fear, and the individual goes in the direction of his response. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. No matter what the hurt may be, I know that the only way that I can share fully in the pattern of truth, wherein there is no hurt, is as I trust God, as I am open in my response toward God.” We know that there is a necessity for change of polarity. The heart which has hitherto been open to the things of the world, the things that hurt, needs to be turned around and opened toward God. When the heart is open toward God it is closed toward the things of the world. But there are those things within the heart already that need to be dealt with, and there may be some hurt involved in relationship to that; but it will not be very much if the individual takes the attitude: “Though he slay me”—whatever happens, I don't care—“yet will I trust him.”
There are many knots and tangles in human hearts that need to be unraveled, and you know that if you have a knotted and tangled ball of string and you hold on to the two ends tightly, you will never get the knots and the tangles out of the string by that means. You have to let go of the ends of the string. You have to let go! And then something can be done about picking the knots and tangles out of the string. It needs to be loosened up. If you hold on to the ends of the string and someone else comes along and starts to get the knots loosened up, but you hang on to the ends of the string, you may get a little more on the string, but you make the tangle worse, you make it tighter. The individual cannot untangle his emotional scramble himself. It must be done by God, but the individual must let go of the ends of the string, let go of those tensions which keep the tangle tight. The fear of being hurt is one of those tensions, because, though the individual may let go at a certain point, as soon as the Lord begins to work on the tangles in the string, he is afraid of being hurt. It does not hurt yet, mind you, but he is afraid of being hurt, and quickly grabs hold of the ends of the string again and pulls it tight, so what unraveling the Lord had done comes to naught. It is necessary to learn not only to let go but to stay in that condition, so that you give the Lord a chance. And when you give the Lord a chance, you give yourself a chance too.
The Lord is not going to hurt you. He certainly will not require anything of you more than you are able. It is essential that the attitude “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” should be your attitude. If you stop to think about it, the individual who is successful in building such an impenetrable protection that he cannot any longer be touched in his feelings has committed the unpardonable sin. The feeling realm works either toward the world or toward God, but it is the same feeling realm; and if he has protected himself so effectively with respect to the things of the world, he has in fact also protected himself completely from God. The fear of being hurt causes the individual to develop such protections, or to devise ways and means of escape. It is a control which needs to be carefully examined in relationship to yourselves. When the individual has so let go that he refuses any longer to be controlled by the fear of being hurt, then he can be open toward God, and toward a consideration of those necessities in relationship to himself which need to be taken care of, the existing hurts that need to be healed.
In the healing process the Lord at times necessarily must touch them. I think we have used an illustration in times past with respect to a sliver in the finger. If there is something that needs to be removed it must be taken hold of and pulled out. Under such circumstances it is true that perhaps there will be a little pain for a few moments, but when the sliver is gone the healing can take place rapidly, and there is no more pain, for the former things have passed away. If the sliver is left in it will continue to fester and pain and hurt, and the individual is likely to become more and more afraid of anyone touching it. Yet it must be touched if it is to be healed. There are those things in the tangles in your hearts that will have to be touched—threads to be loosened, knots to be untied. The job cannot be done without touching them. But when it is done, what blessed relief! “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” The human heart that is open toward God can be healed and made pure, but the human heart will not be open toward God as long as the fear of being hurt still controls.
What about the hurts that manifest as the individual serves God from within the Kingdom? There are no hurts in the Kingdom, no hurts between those who are in the Kingdom. But what, for instance, of the hurt that our Master experienced at the conclusion of His ministry on earth? There was physical hurt, yes, but more than that, there was the vibrational impact, which was the greatest hurt, in the garden of Gethsemane. That hurt came to Him because of the failure of others. When the individual is functioning from within the Kingdom, having let himself be purified in heart, the hurts that come thereafter are only consequent upon the failure of others, and of course they do not make any difference to the individual's attitude in serving God on earth. Such hurts as our Master experienced did not change His attitude at all. Even though there were these hurts, it was still His joy, fundamentally, to carry through, and He kept emphasizing joy to those who should follow Him.
Provided that each one is controlled by the spirit of God, is true to the truth, there need be no such hurts. In any case we do not need to concern ourselves particularly with such things. The immediate concern is to let the heart be purified, to let go to God, to yield more completely in the attitude, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." What is wrong with being hurt? The fact that you can be hurt is an indication to you that something needs changing somewhere. So when something begins to hurt, you can begin to trace down what it is that needs changing. If you skip out immediately you think something is going to hurt, you will never reach the point of discovering what it is that needs dealing with. If the individual had no hurts, what incentive would he have, on the basis of human nature, to seek God? If everything was lovely insofar as you are concerned, from this moment onward, no hurts at all anywhere, I wonder how much progress you would continue to make. When the children of Israel came into the Promised Land and began to do pretty well there, they immediately forgot why they had come. There is undoubtedly such a tendency in human nature until human nature is changed, and when human nature is changed there is no more hurt on the old basis, and because human nature has changed, the individual will not revert into old patterns of human tendency.
So let us cease to allow the fear of being hurt to remain as a control factor within ourselves. Let us be willing to be hurt if necessary, that we may be healed. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” And then the One Spirit can control in relationship to each, establishing absolute agreement on earth as touching the things of God, that the will of God may be done of our Father which is in heaven. If you can hurt one another within the scope of our pattern here, it gives evidence of the fact that there are those things in you which need changing, because if you were sharing fully in the Divine Pattern there would be no hurt within the scope of it. So if there is hurt anywhere, you may know that there is something that needs changing. Recognize that fact, and do not endeavor to protect yourself, or to escape, but pay attention to the evidence that is being provided for you in relationship to that which needs changing, that you may see the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
If you think that I am going to hurt you in some fashion and you are afraid of that, how can the things in you be dealt with? If you try to protect yourself from me, or to escape from the sword in my hand, or the sword in my mouth, how can that which needs cutting away, separating from you, be removed? Are you afraid of the spirit in me? The things that are not of God, the unreal, are afraid of the One Spirit; but there is no need to identify yourself with those things. Those are the things that cause hurt. Let go and let the tangle be unraveled. It may take a little time. We have a little time, not too much, so let us make use of the time we have while conditions are so easy, so ideal, we might say. They will not always be this way. Let us let the tangles be unraveled, refusing any longer to allow the fear of being hurt to control in our lives, because we have surrendered and yielded to the One Spirit, the spirit of our LORD and KING by which all things may be made new. It is the only way. “And there shall be no more pain, for the former things are passed away.”
© emissaries of divine light
