Trembling To Obey
Martin Cecil April 13, 1975 a.m.
As I was doing a little thinking earlier this morning, I wrote down these few words: “Events upon the earthly scene occur by reason of the sound of the heavenly trumpet behind the scene. The world trembles, either to obey that sound in awakening response or to collapse because of opposition. The sound of the trumpet intensifies on earth because of those who awaken to obey.” Human beings are inclined to imagine that they themselves originate their experiences. It certainly is true that human attitudes condition the nature of what is experienced, but human attitudes themselves result from their reaction to what is happening behind the worldly scene of events. We are gathered here this morning because it is our desire to continue to awaken to the sound of the trumpet behind the scene.
Awakening is not an instantaneous experience. We may open our eyes in a moment and survey the scene, but this does not mean that we understand what we see or that we are capable, as yet, of playing our parts in the scene. We should not imagine that the mere fact of new vision is sufficient. There have been all too many schools of thought in the world which have come into existence because someone had a new vision. They have come into existence regardless of whether the vision was accurate or not and regardless of whether that vision had engendered any actual experience or not. Experience should follow vision. If we just have vision, and assume that that is enough, our behavior remains very much the same and will be consequent upon a habitual and uncomprehending reaction to what is happening behind the scene.
I’m reminded of rather a familiar story out of the Bible, relating to an event in the life of Abraham. This is from the eighteenth chapter of Genesis: “And the Lord appeared unto him [that is, Abraham] in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.”
Most people find themselves sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. When it is hot a person is inclined to be somewhat lethargic, and a siesta seems better than action. And so, the tent door is occupied, and what should be experienced in living is not. In this instance Abraham became aware of the approach of these three men, the approach of the Lord, in fact. He did not stay nodding in the tent door; he sprang immediately to his feet and ran to meet the Lord. He woke up, in other words, from his siesta and immediately assumed the responsibility of providing the necessary answer, by reason of the approach of the Lord.
We have seen how the usual human attitude is to try to get something from the Lord, whether a person is considering the Lord from a religious standpoint or whether he is considering the Lord from the standpoint of what he can get from one of his fellows. The idea of the Lord may never enter a person’s consciousness, but the usual human attitude is certainly one of trying to get something—out of life, perhaps, but this entails getting something out of other people or one’s environment in some fashion. If the approach is a religious one, then so-called prayer enters the picture and demands are liable to be made upon the Lord, whereas true prayer is just the reverse.
We hear the sound of the trumpet and we tremble to answer, to obey. The attitude of trembling, in this instance, indicates a certain alertness; not trembling because of fear, but trembling because we are alive and quick to obey. The very sounding of the trumpet is a welcome sound and the vibration of it is felt in our own beings, so that we tremble in response. That trumpet is sounding all the time everywhere; insofar as we individually are concerned it is sounding exactly where we are. There is fear and uncertainty in the hearts of human beings because of this sounding; and because of the fear various attitudes and actions are engendered. But if there is a delighted response something else occurs in the individual’s experience. Is there a delighted response in our hearts, in fact?
We can observe a considerable shaking going on in the world. Observing these effects all around us, near and far, does this produce any sense of fear or depression? Do these things bother us as we wonder at what is coming in the earth? Or is the trembling that we feel cause for a sense of delighted expectation? Which way is it with us? And not only in a general sense but when things come to point more specifically, day by day. So often the human reaction is, “Why does this have to happen to me?” Why do you think? Do you not have any responsibility in the matter? No, we get what’s coming to us—usually somewhat modified, most fortunately. How many of you, being really honest, would want to receive exactly what’s coming to you?
There is an influence of mercy at work, or I doubt if the human race would have continued to exist at all. I don’t think that we really have any cause for complaint. We get what we ask for, even though most of our asking may be of a nature that is unconscious to us. We ask on the basis of our habitual attitudes and we receive accordingly. Then, being illogical and uncomprehending, we complain about it.
When we sense the trembling within ourselves, how do we translate it? As fear, so that we feel under the necessity of striking out in word or action against what we conceive to be the enemy? Are we hemmed in and surrounded by the enemy? Do we tremble in consequence? Is this the way that we translate our trembling? We needn’t translate it that way, because if we suppose that we are besieged by the enemy we delude ourselves.
We can translate the trembling differently—a sense of excitement, indeed, which comes by reason of our response to the sound of the heavenly trumpet. Then the heavenly trumpet, the sound of it, is what might be described as the day of resurrection. Might not that be an exciting prospect?—for where the trembling inspires to obedience, salvation is at hand. When the trembling produces fear, perdition is at hand. But we are capable of making a choice; there is a trembling in the land, a trembling in human hearts—rightly so.
As the sound of the trumpet comes louder, the trembling increases as we sit in the tent door in the heat of the day. Do we awaken with excitement and delighted anticipation of the opportunity that is before us to run to meet the Lord, to run to meet the source of the sounding of the trumpet? What a delight this may indeed be, that we may come to life; no longer dozing in the tent door, no longer lethargic, subject to human patterns of behavior, expecting merely to retire into the tent eventually and vanish from the scene of things. Shall we live or die? We live when the sound of the trumpet, the trembling within our hearts, inspires excited and delighted response, so that we run forth from the tent door, leaving behind our lethargic habits and leaping once again in the true experience of life, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/05/let-my-beloved-come-into-his-garden.html] doing this because it is natural to us to answer the Lord, but not to try to get an answer from Him, whatever form we may think He takes.
There are certainly a variety of forms from which human beings anticipate getting answers. It is not a matter of trying to get answers; it is a matter of being the answer in response to the sounding of the trumpet, to rise up from our lethargy, from the state of what we have called living—which was really dying in the tent door—leaving behind that old state of lethargy and habit based in earthly heredity and offering ourselves to a new state of experience in living. We can’t have it both ways; we can’t maintain the old and know the new; and yet human beings seem to be enamored at least with certain aspects of their old state of living—which was really dying—so that they are extremely reluctant to let them go. Consequently they stay sitting in the tent door all the days of their existence on earth, until they fall backwards into the oblivion and the darkness of the tent. What is to be gained by sitting in the tent door? The tent door represents the state of human existence.
Sitting somnolent in the tent door, one may delude oneself that one is engaging in exciting activity in the dreams that occur, or one may be horrified by what goes on in the nightmares; but all this is part of what is known as long as a person sits in the tent door. The point of awakening would be the point where one stopped dreaming. One awakens to the sound of the trumpet and obeys, then one comes out of the tent door forward instead of backward. One may run to meet the Lord now. What do you see now? That’s the question!
Hearing the sound of the trumpet and trembling to obey, are you willing to rise up and run to meet the Lord? Running to meet the Lord is to allow the sound of the trumpet to inspire one’s living. So, in effect, you say to the Lord, “Here I am.” This is the truth of living. This is not what most people do, is it? They sit miserable in the tent door, dying, and demanding help from somewhere. The whole attitude in the tent door is one of demand. Everybody has their demands.
The Word of the Lord out of the whirlwind, out of the sound of the trumpet, is this: “I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” If you answer, then you live; if you refuse to answer, then you die; because the sound of the trumpet is in this sense the demand of the Lord. If you oppose that sound, trembling with fear and acting irrationally in your dreams, you will fall backwards into the tent. But if, hearing the sound of the trumpet, you do not translate it in terms of fear but rather in terms of a desire to obey, you will run to meet the Lord and you will discover what it means to live. Living is now or not at all; and living begins to be known when a person stirs out of his slumbers in the tent door, beholding the opportunity to spring up and run to meet the Lord.
When trembling is translated in these terms, then new vision appears; there is a new awareness. But if you stay sitting in the tent door, gazing out upon this new awareness of the Lord, the heat of the day will shortly lure you back into slumber. You must get up! How usual it is for human beings to remain seated in the tent door, just looking at the vision, unmoved to any action. They think they see something. They may say “Now I’m saved” or “Now I’ve arrived” or “Now I understand,” but it’s all still illusion, because until a person starts to move, to get up, he remains at least partially asleep and what he begins to see that is new is through the eyes of his dreaming.
We must awaken and stand up—not only stand up but begin to run with great enthusiasm toward the experience of what is seen. And when we begin to experience what is seen, our vision will change and we will discover that it is not what we first thought it to be. But if we accept what we first saw as though it were the truth, we will be stuck with an evil imagination. Only when we move, so that what we have seen is translated into action, do we approach the point where we may understand what we have seen.
Obviously, if you see something afar off and just stay sitting, squinting at what you think you see, you will not really know what it is. But if you actually get to your feet and move toward what you think you see, it will change as you approach. So the vision is renewed by reason of action, by reason of what is done. But one cannot move toward a comprehension of what is seen if one stays in the tent door, if one stays wedded to one’s old attitudes, one’s old habits, one’s old behavior. The new comes when we rise up out of the old, because we are willing to let it all go. Perhaps we do not let it all go in a moment but we must be willing ultimately to let it all go. If one is to awaken from the dream state, the dream state all must go—all of the dream, not just the most offensive parts of it. We can’t keep the choice elements of the dream and wake up at the same time. Let your dreams go and awake.
Run forward from the tent door into the experience and the expression of the newness of the vision. And behold, all things are indeed made new! Tremble to obey. Rise up and come forth at the sound of the trumpet, for I demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Lillian Cecil — Martin, it’s the sound of the trumpet and I rise up! I just can’t sit here physically anymore. I don’t know about anybody else. [All rose.] You keep saying “Stand up!” and I say, “Well, I’ve got to sit here; I’ve got to be polite.” Praise the Lord, Martin, because this is it! We’ve got to rise up to run to meet the Lord, and you can’t rise up when you’re sitting. You can’t run if you just sit there. You’ve got to rise up. This is the thing. To do what’s necessary in the very moment of now, not in half an hour from now, or some other time. It’s just right now, and I praise the Lord for the fact that the Lord is present through you.
Grace Van Duzen — And I praise the Lord too, and I shout Aumen. I think if there was room to run, Martin, we’d have run.
Martin Cecil — Well, perhaps you can resume your seats without falling backwards into the tent. “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/i-am-come-into-my-garden-martin-cecil.html] I will demand of thee, and answer thou me—not only in this moment while we are together sharing the sound of the trumpet but because we are alert and aware to that sound in each moment of our living. And when we are, as the old behavior and the old habits seek to reassert themselves, to maintain our somnolent position in the door of the tent, we remember what we are about—to run into the new expression, into the new experience, to let our vision become the reality of our living, that the reality of our living may acquaint us with greater vision, and the greater vision, in turn, become the reality of our greater living. And so it goes, to the Glory of God, and to the blessing of all those who tremble to obey.
© emissaries of divine light
