Heavenly Flesh
Martin Cecil May 2, 1980 p.m.
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” These were the words which took form by reason of the spirit of God, and the command emanates from the spirit of God. In the material sense there is obedience to spirit, absolute obedience. Obviously only when there is could what was coming forth in spiritual action be clear in expression, materially speaking. If we can doctor it a little in the material sense then it is no longer the clear evidence of the spirit of God in action. So there is the necessity of material obedience to the spiritual command. The right of free choice in the material sense is rightly removed. We have reached a point where there has been an increasing trust that the action of spirit is right. As this obedience comes we find ourselves associated with the spirit. We move out of association with the material self that we have known, out of subjection to that, into a new wakefulness.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. I am sure you all agree. How do you know? The kingdom of heaven is no less real than the kingdom of earth which we have known. We could say that the kingdom of earth that we have known is far less real than the kingdom of heaven. We say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand because it is actually here. The kingdom of heaven is part of our dimensional world. The substance of the kingdom of heaven is of such a vibrational quality—a fine quality—that it permeates the kingdom of earth. We claim to know that heaven and earth are one. The earth is interpenetrated by heaven. There is in fact no actual separation.
Our experience has been that of the material flesh. Because we have flesh bodies, and the consciousness that goes with that flesh body, we are aware of the kingdom of earth. We bump into things. Material substance is there. We only know it is there because we have a flesh body that is of a like vibrational quality to the substance which composes the kingdom of earth. We become very sure that we inhabit the kingdom of earth simply because there is this flesh entity on hand which is a part of the kingdom of earth. We are substantial in the earthly sense. Our flesh bodies make it so. It is not only a matter of a flesh body. There is something more to our experience than a flesh body. There is the factor of consciousness related to that flesh body, so that there is a flesh person on hand in a material world, and we are familiar with this world.
Because there is little or no consciousness of the kingdom of heaven, a world of finer substance, we have attempted to live in the kingdom of earth as though it were complete in itself. This is common to human beings everywhere. And it has seemed that’s about all we could do. But the kingdom of heaven is at hand—it’s here. It is already substantial at its own level. It is composed of fine substance, which takes a variety of forms of a different nature because it is a different level. How aware are we of the fact that we are present in the kingdom of heaven? [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-heaven-of-this-earth-is-city-in-star.html] This is true of everybody on the face of the earth. Whether anyone likes it or not—it doesn’t make much difference to most—everyone is present in the kingdom of heaven already, but we have not been substantial people at that level.
We could recognize that we are almost ghostly at that level. We just walk through these forms without realizing that there’s anything there. This substance doesn’t impress us in the way that physical substance does. If you bump into the door at night, you know it; there is whatever is similar in the kingdom of heaven, but we don’t bump into it; we simply walk through it. The only way by which anyone can become aware of the kingdom of heaven is to be a substantial person at that level—to have heavenly flesh. We already have earthly flesh and we know about the kingdom of earth, but we haven’t had very much heavenly flesh and consequently the kingdom of heaven has escaped us; not that it went away anywhere, not that it is being withheld by some arbitrary God, but merely because we have not allowed our own heavenly flesh to permit us to be present, consciously present, at the level of heavenly form.
Let me assure you that I am not talking about some spiritualistic realm where human beings stumble around on occasion. That’s all part of the kingdom of earth. There are various levels of substance within the range of the kingdom of earth. All these levels are coarser than the substance which is present in the kingdom of heaven. To become aware of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is here we must become substantial people with heavenly flesh at the level where the heavenly state is. While the heaven may not have been seen as being directly here, it has been thought of in terms of clouds perhaps, because it seems insubstantial. The substance of that kingdom is much finer than the coarse substance of earth. So if we are not incarnate, so to speak, in a heavenly flesh body at that level we don’t know anything about it. But sitting here this evening we may have a certain awareness, to the extent that there has been a generation of heavenly substance, that there is more here than the kingdom of earth. The kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand and may come into the experience of human beings when they are present where the kingdom of heaven is. So there is this continuing necessity for the generation of the substance of heavenly flesh if we are to become substantial people capable of operating in the kingdom of heaven relative to the substance which is already there.
We don’t have to make the kingdom of heaven be. It is, and it is well provided with substance. But it has been underpopulated, because there are few if any people on earth with physical flesh who also have an adequate quota of heavenly flesh and therefore are capable of bumping into, I suppose you could put it that way, the forms that are present in the kingdom of heaven. Of course we’re not interested, really, in bumping into these things but we need to be able to navigate properly. Of course we apparently don’t need to navigate at the moment, because we do not have a heavenly flesh body which might bump into the fine substance of the forms in the kingdom of heaven. But having that fine substance, in whatever measure, we become aware of a world besides the world that we have known.
When people become interested in spiritual things, and this is interpreted in religious ways, what is called prayer becomes quite a prominent feature. Usually when people do move into this field they close their eyes; in other words, they are shutting out the material world, or making the attempt at least. Of course the trouble is that behind the eyes there is still a consciousness which is part of the material world, and a person in such case will very often find himself assailed by all kinds of mental ghosts, mental forms. Sometimes there were those who thought it might be efficacious to go into what they would term a silence; but it wasn’t very quiet, because there were so many mental forms on the prowl which inserted themselves into consciousness and the person who was attempting to experience this deep meditation would get distracted. But there is something right about closing the eyes, in the sense that there is the necessity of becoming aware of what is present in the kingdom of heaven, having the substance to become aware of it, without distraction from the kingdom of earth. This would seem to be necessary; otherwise the kingdom of earth really blots everything else out. It’s so raucous and we are so accustomed to being involved with it.
We have recognized that there is and has been a veil present in the consciousness of human beings which has maintained their awareness of the kingdom of earth as an isolated place. It may be seen that there is a relationship between this material earth and other material bodies in the solar system or further afield in the universe, but the kingdom of heaven has been conspicuous by its absence in human consciousness. Now we begin to understand why: there was substance for a person to begin to contact, touch, and navigate in the kingdom of heaven. The first necessity then was to generate the essential heavenly flesh—spiritual substance, pneumaplasm—at a certain fine level which would allow the veil of separation to be dissolved or transcended.
Again, I would emphasize the fact that here this evening we are aware of being in the kingdom of earth—maybe the pews get a little hard or something—but just as surely present as the kingdom of earth, which forces itself upon our attention in various ways, there is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom comes when there are people who become aware of the truth of the matter. We see that it’s merely coming into the awareness of those concerned.
The kingdom of earth has occupied the total attention of human beings. The only seeming contact there has been with the kingdom of heaven has been through imagination. Perhaps there was also some actual sensing of the not so coarse levels that are present in the kingdom of earth. This is how many people have got trapped into the spiritualistic field, imagining that this at last was the kingdom of heaven; but still, they had the same thoughts and the same ideas and the same form even, in this particular realm which is part of the kingdom of earth. Nothing is gained by fiddling around there, any more than anything is gained by fiddling around in the material world the way most people know it. Of course this is undertaken with enthusiasm by many but it doesn’t get anyone anywhere.
Our concern is with the kingdom of heaven and with the experience of being a substantial person there. We know something about being a substantial person in the kingdom of earth. We have a sense of self in that way, and we have that because we have a flesh body here. We have eyes and we can see what is going on around us; we hear, and all the rest. We are connected up very closely with the kingdom of earth and we have a sense of self because of all this. We don’t have much of a sense of self in the kingdom of heaven, and we see now that it is because we haven’t had an adequate body of heavenly flesh to discern what is present in the kingdom of heaven. When that discerning begins to become a fact then we begin to have a sense of heavenly self; we begin to sense that our reality centers in spirit, and we are approaching closer to the place of spirit.
The heavenly levels in this dimensional world are the connecting levels between the undimensional world of spirit and the dimensional world of material things. Here is the realm of connection, which has been excluded from human experience, so that people could only speculate as to the reality of God, for instance. It’s only in recent times that the coarse substance has become so thick that human beings in many cases have decided that there isn’t any such thing as God. They have excluded themselves from any experience which would bring conviction. So we are concerned to let this connecting link be reestablished between God in the undimensional sense and the material world in the dimensional sense. This connection is made by reason of the reality of heaven or, as we are looking at it now, the kingdom of heaven.
We may call it a kingdom because control is operative there, the control of spirit. No human being can experience what it is that is present in the kingdom of heaven without accepting the control of spirit. The closer one comes to undimensional God the more experience there must be of the dominion and the control of the spirit of God. Here in this material world the spirit of God is very faint. The coarse substance doesn’t transmit the Word of God very clearly and most human beings don’t hear it. It’s a very deadening substance, so that the sound which reverberates in the kingdom of heaven, by reason of the action of spirit there, becomes fainter and fainter as it moves out into the coarse realms where human beings are. It has to come through the veil, which is the impure human heart—the heart, the emotional realm of human beings which is cluttered up with so much stuff. Well that’s all part of the material world, and we are trapped in the material world until there begins to be the generation of a finer substance in our living experience. That finer substance is the heavenly flesh which gives us shape and form and meaning in the kingdom of heaven. We cannot have shape and form and meaning without having a sense of identity that goes with it.
As this sense of identity becomes stronger the sense of identity that we had known in the material way becomes weaker. We need at least as much heavenly flesh as we have earthly flesh. There couldn’t be any sort of balance otherwise. But as there is the heavenly flesh, and the sense of heavenly identity, then the material world recedes into a secondary place relative to the spiritual world and we dwell in the kingdom of heaven on earth. The kingdom of heaven has always been on earth but lacking inhabitants. Now there may begin to be inhabitants in that kingdom, dwelling in this Secret Place of the Most High, abiding under the Shadow of the Undimensional Almighty
I am sure you would readily acknowledge that dwelling in the kingdom of heaven is not all that familiar to you. In fact as yet the kingdom of earth is largely dominant, because your sense of identity is there. If your sense of identity increases in the kingdom of heaven you are not so afraid of losing it in the kingdom of earth. Most people are deadly afraid of that. They are afraid of death, in other words. If that identity is all one has, well I suppose one might argue that it’s quite a valid thing that one should be afraid of death. But if there is a sense of identity in the kingdom of heaven then the sense of identity that has been known in the kingdom of earth becomes recessive and not all that important. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth-uranda.html] When this is so, obviously things are seen in a totally new light. Most of human function in the kingdom of earth is based in self-preservation, survival as a seeming entity in the kingdom of earth. Well one may survive for a while. Some survive a little longer than others, but survival is not permanent on that basis, is it?
It is in a person’s self-interest that there should be an increased experience of the state of self in the kingdom of heaven, where moth and rust do not carry everything away as they do in the earth and where it is impossible for thieves to break through and steal. No one can get into the kingdom of heaven; there is an impenetrable veil. But one may, in the quality of one’s living, generate the substance which provides the spiritual flesh, so that one may be present in the kingdom of heaven in the substantial sense and not merely be a ghost flitting through, who is unaware of what is there and so has to conjure up ideas in imagination.
The kingdom of heaven is real and may be known to be real when we dwell there; but we don’t dwell there as human ghosts; we dwell there, if we do, as substantial people. And this level of experience becomes dominant. It is of primary importance, because we are well aware that the kingdom of earth is governed out of the kingdom of heaven. So the kingdom of earth can be brought again to order and to beauty, because there are those present in the kingdom of heaven who are also present in the kingdom of earth and provide the dominion by which this occurs.
I am not suggesting that anyone speculate as to how present he or she is in the kingdom of heaven now. If there is a need for speculation, well I would say that you are not there. It must become the experienced fact, and it will only do so as one begins to be really consistent in the matter, so that one isn’t dodging in and out. There are various qualities which characterize a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. We are aware of some of those qualities. It is not a matter of trying to acquire such qualities while dwelling in the kingdom of earth. There are many people who have attempted to do this, and perhaps they have improved their kingdom of earth image but they didn’t really experience the character of the one who dwells in the kingdom of heaven. It was, in some respects, phony; it was a human invention. But the character is awaiting the flesh.
In the human sense, whether you knew it or not, you had a heavenly character before you were born into the flesh of the material world. You have subsequently developed an earthly character and an earthly sense of self. You couldn’t have done this, it wouldn’t have happened, if you did not have a flesh body and a means of acquainting yourself with the kingdom of earth. This same principle applies to the one who rightly dwells in the kingdom of heaven. You cannot know yourself in the kingdom of heaven if you are not there, and you can’t be there, in any meaningful sense at least, in any conscious sense—and incidentally, subconscious sense too—without the flesh body of spiritual substance out of which is generated the consciousness which makes you aware of yourself in the kingdom of heaven. It is really rather obvious, I would say, once one has the basic understanding of what factors are involved. You have been in position to follow out these implications just as well as I have. We become aware together of the reality of the kingdom of heaven to the extent that we put in an appearance there.
One of the more or less obvious characteristics of the kingdom of heaven is that of friendship. Those who dwell in the kingdom of heaven are friends. They don’t have to cultivate friendship. It is a natural condition of the state. We find ourselves discovering the reality of friendship, and the reality of friendship does not necessarily conform very much with the human concept of friendship in the kingdom of earth. The human concept of friendship in the kingdom of earth has been based in the character of those who were simply citizens of the kingdom of earth. They had their preferences and their likes and their dislikes, and their feelings of rapport between each other, on the basis of what was present in the kingdom of earth. And, by the way, most of what human beings do experience of, “Well I felt something with this person,” is merely feeling factors that are present solely in the kingdom of earth. There are various patterns of relationship that get established in the kingdom of earth that have little if anything to do with the kingdom of heaven. One couldn’t tell as long as one was simply an inhabitant of the kingdom of earth. You can only begin to tell when you have the experience of dwelling in the kingdom of heaven. Then you find that things are as they should be there.
What was it that the Master said, no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven? Well there is no need, because the natural state of association is already there. Nobody knows it’s there until they land up there with spiritual flesh bodies. Then you find out. Of course this was what was being said when it was indicated, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” You land up as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, where friendship is the norm. This is not to say that all who dwell in the kingdom of heaven are buddy-buddy. There are simply the right associations of friendship, and there are many. It would be very dull if they were all the same, wouldn’t it?
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you,” whatsoever the spirit of God brings into play in the kingdom of heaven relative to what is necessary in the kingdom of earth. Then the kingdom of earth comes under the dominion of the kingdom of heaven, and the arbiters of that dominion were called Man, in the beginning. Man was to have dominion, because it was natural for him to be in the kingdom of heaven, natural for him to experience the heavenly identity which centers in the reality of spirit. The true identity is undimensional. It only comes out into earthly experience through the kingdom of heaven. We’ve been concerned to let this happen, to let the kingdom come on earth now, because we, amongst others, reach a point where we actually dwell there; but we dwell here too. It doesn’t mean we’ve escaped from the earth; we are still here. And we become very much aware that there is no separation between heaven and earth. The fine substance of our heavenly experience is present and permeates the flesh body of our earthly experience.
True spirituality does not detract from earthly effectiveness. You can discern true spirituality very largely on this basis. Many people who are seeking to add spirituality to the earthly state they are experiencing drift off into a never-never land and become very inept in the kingdom of earth. But if one dwells in the kingdom of heaven one automatically is very, what is it, ept in the kingdom of earth; one is effective. It brings things together, and as there are those who are in position to let this happen the whole world changes. Once more the dominion of God is present relative to the kingdom of earth, because man is present again to let it be so, and immediately something begins to happen in the kingdom of earth. Well, it is already happening.
We see it happening, and a lot of what we see seems to be destructive and disintegrative. We realize that this must be so because so much of the substance of earth has been retained in forms that do not reflect the true forms of the kingdom of heaven. Therefore when the kingdom of heaven begins to put in an appearance because there are those present who let it be, then the substance that was in the false forms automatically begins to free itself from the false forms so that it may be included, at whatever level, relative to the true forms which originate in the kingdom of heaven. So there is bound to be the destructive aspect, as we well know, but it frees up the substance so that it may begin to take shape in the way that it should on the basis of what is present in the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of earth then is a reflection of the kingdom of heaven, and the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Earth, is once more a material reality on earth. It has always been a reality at the level of the fine vibrational substance. It was never taken away; it has always been there. All that happened was that human beings took themselves away from it. Now we are concerned to let it be experienced again, to the Glory of God, and we share this most wonderful responsibility. But I would emphasize the point that there needs to be a deliberate concern, not only for the quality of living which allows the generation of heavenly flesh but to let the heavenly consciousness which then results become specific in one’s own experience, to discern what is actually present with us now, so that we stop stumbling around in the dark.
By the way, the qualities that are present in the kingdom of heaven are naturally experienced by those who dwell there. So you know very well that if a person is in a state of complaint, for instance, he doesn’t know anything about the kingdom of heaven—not dwelling there. It is quite possible, and indeed natural, to dwell in the kingdom of heaven now and to experience what it means to dwell there, what the state is. I used one word to indicate something that characterizes that state, namely friendship. If you are at odds with your neighbor, who also presumably is seeking to experience the kingdom of heaven, then you’re not in the kingdom of heaven, certainly. It’s very self-revealing, and if we are honest and look at our own experience, we know right away. Let us be honest in this regard and recognize that there is nothing to stop us from dwelling in the kingdom of heaven on earth now except our own intransigence, our own unwillingness in the material sense to let it happen. No, we’re going to drink the awful brew of the material state right down to the dregs! Are we? Why? What’s the point? Let us accept the opportunity to dwell in the kingdom of heaven now. Of course, in doing that, we accept the KING who dwells there and we experience what He meant when He said, in effect, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
© emissaries of divine light
