The Yearning For Visible God Assuaged

The  Yearning  For  Visible  God  Assuaged

Martin Cecil   July 3, 1983

Fitting music has a unifying effect, an effect which you yourselves know in this moment, whether you are at Edenvale or here in the Chapel at 100 Mile House. Noise has a disintegrating effect. Music could be defined as coherent sound; noise, incoherent sound. Most of what is known in the world is incoherent sound, or noise, which brings disintegration. Speaking of noise and incoherent sound, we may well be reminded of the story of the Tower of Babel. What a racket! We ourselves are quite familiar with the racket. In fact, in company with most others, we are inclined to take it for granted. What would it be if there was a world filled with music instead of noise? Of course there are those who try to make it so by clamping headphones on their ears and listening, to noise as a rule. This is supposed to shut out the disintegrative sound and bring coherent sound. But who knows what the coherent sound would really be? There are peculiar imitations which human beings have invented, limitations which stir the emotions and keep all concerned well trapped in the human state, certainly blotting out the music which otherwise might begin to be discerned.

There has been talk about the music of the spheres, something grand and awful I suppose; but it really comes quite close to home. It is the coherent sound of one’s own true being. If, through the six senses, we invite in all this noise, it obliterates what otherwise might be perceived; chiefly because the person needs something to mute the discordance in his own experience. Why would it be a discordance? Why would we wish to blot out what rightly is coming forth from heaven into expression in one’s own field of spiritual living and responsibility? Instead of letting that happen there is the inclination to try to gather in something which activates the six senses and disturbs the heart. The disturbed heart is the impure heart, and the impure heart could never know the truth, could never know the reality of the Living God. Yet there is even a tendency amongst our number to insist upon maintaining the activation of the heart through the six senses. It is being done all the time in various ways. If we begin to discern the reality of our own being, then this is the fulfilling experience once it is brought forth in living. The sound shouldn’t originate in the noise round about, but in one’s own true spirit, so that life becomes coherent; one might say a dance to the rhythm which is describable as “coming down from God out of heaven.”

We have had the experience this morning of some music. We have ourselves participated in it, shared the expression of it—coherent sound, so that we might have an increasingly coherent experience which is unification, oneness. There is a yearning in human hearts for the experience of oneness. Most people try in their foolish ways to produce it, as though it didn’t already exist. Inadvertently it is sometimes known—an evidence of something—a yearning in human hearts for Visible God. This is interpreted in a way that makes it acceptable. Certainly there is very little conscious awareness of what the yearning really is, but when someone is found who in some measure fills the bill of human expectation, then there springs out the experience of delight.

Of course Visible God tends to be interpreted initially as relating to someone else. There must seemingly be a figurehead, a representation, in which to center one’s loving expectations, simply because there is this yearning in human hearts for Visible God. And the first touching of Visible God comes in representation because of someone other than oneself. This has centered in the one called Jesus, insofar as the Christian world is concerned, but all He could be for everyone was a point of representation. His representation may have been true, real, but it could only be acknowledged and accepted by others on the basis of a representation of something for the person who was acknowledging it. He didn’t cause anyone to know God—the fact of the necessity of what was called belief was emphasized at the time when this man was on earth—but here was necessarily the first step. It was impossible, at the beginning point, for anyone to experience the truth of knowing, because their expression in life was far from divine. So the only way that contact could be made was by reason of representation. It seems to have been taken now that that was all that was necessary, the representation. It certainly was provided. Many, many people over the centuries have had the opportunity of letting it come into their own experience of knowing, but apparently very few have. The representation was considered to be sufficient, something seemingly external to oneself.

This is all that can be experienced by human beings in the state in which they find themselves: “under the veil,” in an imaginary world, the world which at best is only half a world—far from even that. There is another half to be experienced. You will recall that man put himself out of the Garden long ago; at least this is the analogy that is used to indicate how man separated himself from himself, so that he was only a fraction of a person. The primary aspect of man is then describable as being the other side of the veil. People have been trying to get through the veil, one way or the other, but that isn’t the way it works. You can’t get through the veil. There was “a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” This being so, the Tree of Life must still be there; the Garden is still there. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-garden-called-to-remembrance.html] It is just human beings that don’t know it, because they have established for themselves this peculiar state of separateness. If the restoration of human beings to the true state of man is ever to occur, obviously the state of separateness must be dissolved; the veil must be dissolved, so that what is the other side of the veil may be found to be present this side of the veil.

It is not that we should somehow try to take up our trappings here and move through the veil into some other state, but to allow what is present already, but hidden by the veil, to be experienced here, where we are now, because the veil has been dissolved. It is a matter of heaven coming down from God into the earth; not trying to push the earth into heaven, because obviously if we were able to succeed in that futile task it wouldn’t be heaven anymore. The only safe way for it to happen is for heaven to come into the earth, and then that transforms the earth.

So we share this vision and responsibility ourselves, but we also recognize that there is a yearning in human hearts everywhere for the experience that has been lost, the experience of the oneness of heaven and earth, the Garden experience. It is impossible to force our way into the Garden; it can’t be done. The only thing left is to let the Garden come where we are, and this is and has been our concern with respect to our own individual personal experience. But we see the fact present in the hearts of masses of human beings who yearn for what they sensed was lost, and they have also a sensing that in order to re-experience what had been known Visible God must be found. The finding of Visible God is only in representation, in symbol. It can only be done that way as long as one is in the state of this darkened side of the veil, because the experience of God has been excluded; that is what makes the state the way it is.

So the first step always is: Visible God in representation. Perhaps human beings misinterpret that. They misinterpret it by accepting visible symbols which are not necessarily true symbols. The opportunity was provided to accept a true symbol in the person of Jesus. There is the claim that He was the Son of God—the question is, “Who isn’t?”—but He was the Son of God, who revealed the fact in symbol. He revealed the truth which is for everyone, not just for Him. Well, we realize this, but still we are subject to our addictions, human habits. The first thing we tend to want to do is to accept a visible symbol of the Invisible God, as though that was all that was necessary. It is necessary as a starting point.

So the visible symbol must be present to start with, not merely in imagination but in in fact, in the present moment. Obviously the visible symbol was present in fact nineteen centuries ago. But that, fortunately or unfortunately as the view may be, isn’t the present moment. The present moment is now, and there must be the visible symbol now. Well we have had something of a recognition of this, but we have also realized that belief in a visible symbol is not enough. It is a starting point, but the reality described by the word God cannot be known until it is individually expressed. We know what we express. If God is expressed we know God; if He isn’t we don’t. We may believe in God but that doesn’t get any sort of a job done. It could lead in the direction of knowing. If there is the visible symbol, and it is a true one, then there is the expression of that visible symbol. We have described that as the speaking of the Word. It is more than words; it is living, the expression of life characterized by love and truth. That provides a true symbol, and there is a certain delight in finding a true symbol. We would have to acknowledge that, because that is the best that anyone can know at the moment, until it goes beyond that, but only after the symbol has been accepted.

We know very well that the symbol provided by Jesus was not accepted; it was very directly and forcefully rejected. People have been fooling themselves on this point for a long time. They tried to pick up the pieces afterward and say, “Well now we believe.” But it doesn’t do any good, because there must be a present symbol. They effectively got rid of that symbol. There must be a present symbol, but the symbol is never enough. It just provides what is necessary to awaken an awareness, in the heart of the one who recognizes the symbol of the truth, to the Tone, which needs to find expression in their own living. And until that factually does find expression in one’s own living it is impossible to know God. You cannot know God second hand. You cannot know Him because of somebody else, even Jesus. There is a symbol representing each person. He knew God; insofar as He was concerned He wasn’t a symbol to Himself—He was Himself, expressing the truth. That is the only way that the truth can be known. Most people think it can be known because they find someone whom they trust sufficiently, after a fashion, and ask them. “You tell me the truth.” Well that person, if he is indeed a true symbol, can express the truth, and in expressing the truth he knows God; but that doesn’t make God known to anybody else.

One must do it for oneself to know the same thing, and that is the whole point, and the point that has been so thoroughly rejected in what has been called Christianity: “Let’s just maintain the symbol; that is all that is necessary.” The symbol may sometimes be enshrined in a building, a church; an altar, for instance. There is a good symbol! Maybe. It isn’t entirely adequate, is it? It just sits there. It doesn’t do anything! No creative action. That is hardly God. Where does the doing appear? Well through a person presumably, someone who is a living expression of the truth: Visible God. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/09/from-visible-god-martin-cecil-may-29.html] This is the whole reason and purpose of man’s existence; he has no point otherwise. And he has discovered a pointless existence. Because of that there have been very ingenious ways of trying to make it seem to be sensible and rational and accomplishing something. But it really doesn’t. We have a world full of death symbols.

Where is the Living God? The means by which the Living God is made visible has been out to lunch, stuffing his own insides, trying to get satisfaction from the world of his six senses. Well there are all sorts of good things there, aren’t there, goodies of all kinds. There are goodies and baddies, fruit of the forbidden tree I am told. Most people are trying to get goodies, right? Did you ever exercise yourselves in that search for goodies? Do you still exercise yourselves in that way? “What is going to be satisfying to me? How am I going to get something into my heart that is going to fill me up with a good feeling?” Do you think the universe is operating so as to give you a good feeling? There is a great deal of conceit in human beings, isn’t there?

No, we are capable of expressing the truth in our own individual living; and unless we do that we don’t know the truth, we don’t know God, we don’t know nothin’! That is the fact of the matter. But the first dawning awareness of something comes because there is someone around who seems to fill the bill, for the moment, of that unconscious yearning for Visible God. There is an unconscious awareness of the fact that Visible God has been missing but should be present. Visible God is present when all concerned are revealing the truth in their own living; otherwise He is excluded. If we insist upon revealing other things, as most people do, well God is excluded, we are under the veil, we are in the darkness, and it is a miserable business—tribulation of all kinds, conflict.

So we come again to the responsibility, the individual responsibility, of revealing the truth, of speaking the Word, of being Visible God. There are those who begin to awaken to this; presumably Emissaries have, after a fashion; they have sought to let it happen. Very often they imagine that when it does begin to happen one becomes capable of knowing everything and we have some examples of people who have given an air of knowing everything. But no individual knows everything. If there was an individual who knew everything, well what would be the point of all the rest of us? No, we all have a certain measure of understanding and knowing that is right and proper, but it isn’t isolated. I would say that the majority of anyone’s real knowing and understanding is far more dependent upon the knowing and the understanding of others than upon his own personal knowing and understanding. After all, that is only a little point for the expression of truth. But if everybody else is functioning correctly, then there are vast numbers of other points of truth which need to be taken into account, allowed to coordinate with one’s own point of truth. So often a person will get the idea, “Well now I know. I cannot be told anything; I don’t need anybody else. It is all coming forth from me; I know everything that needs to be known.” Well that is true in a manner of speaking, but misinterpreted as a rule.

We know what needs to be known, not only from the standpoint of what is coming through oneself but from the standpoint of what is coming through a number of other people. Sometimes we consciously have an awareness of what it is that is coming through others; we sit down and discuss things at times. But there are a lot of other ways of being a part of the whole. Most of the coordination in the whole is subconscious. There are those things we know for ourselves, but let us never take the attitude, even if one has the assurance that one is really a son or a daughter of God, an angel incarnate and in expression on earth, that one knows everything, you don’t need anybody else to tell you anything. Then you are thoroughly isolated, aren’t you? That is separateness. That is not the truth. So a person who functions on that basis is not functioning on the basis of something coming down from God out of heaven but something rising up out of the earth, which makes his ego swell: “I am very important now; I know everything.” No, we stay humble, because we know very well, as angels of heaven, that we don’t know everything. We are not required to know everything. How could we?

How many angels do you suppose there are? Well I don’t think we would venture to say. Plenty. We know there is a roomful of them here and at Edenvale, but that is not all. Oneness, wholeness, is the truth. And so always there are others who have something to contribute to the truth which we ourselves know, to round it out, to flesh it out, to make it truly rational and coherent. So we don’t get swelled heads. We stay humble, because we know how little we know. But we are delighted that other people know something too. That is a great help, particularly when it is the truth.

So our knowing increases to the extent that the truth is being expressed by others. Therefore our concern is to assist in whatever way we may, so that others may express more of the truth. It isn’t so much a matter of saying, “Well I have got to work with myself, so that I can express more of the truth. Then I’ll know it, then I’ll eventually know it all.” Never. It could never happen. No, we are delighted to do what we may to assist as many as possible in the creative process by which they move beyond the symbol to the personal experience of the reality themselves. It is the only way it can be known. And as we let it be known, Behold, Visible God!

Visible God is then present for others; but only as a symbol to introduce others to the truth which must, if it is to be known, find expression through them. So it is never an exclusive thing, is it?—“Ah, we have the truth.” Who has the truth? Nobody has it. But we are capable of expressing it, and then we know what needs to be known. And when we do express the truth we realize how little we really know and therefore how important it is that others should be on hand who know what we don’t know. Then it all fits together, it becomes coherent. There is One Body, after all. Oneness, wholeness, is the truth. Anything other than that is a lie. Never let your sense of self swell with your great knowing of the truth. It is a very, very little thing, even if it is complete for you. We need each other.

I rejoice in the fact that you are here this morning, gathered at 100 Mile House and at Edenvale, because my knowing can increase because of this. If I have something that strikes a chord of response in your hearts I don’t take that as though what it is that strikes that chord is simply me. It is what is coming out of you. Let the heart be purified, that it may be in position to receive the symbol, to start with—that is a necessary point. The symbol is here. We all participate rightly in that symbol: Visible God. We don’t go around making great claims: “I am Visible God; look at me.” What nonsense! It is something that occurs in human hearts.

A pure heart, an open heart, a yielded heart, is obviously necessary. A disturbed heart is very destructive. We have heard that nothing should enter in that defiles, or works abomination, or makes a lie. Do you take that idea seriously, really? so that nothing actually does enter in that would do that? Or do you allow things to come in so that you are disturbed? I am sure you do at times. What are you going to do in such case? You had better do nothing, because what you do will be very dangerous. And we, who have had this extended blessing and opportunity to let our hearts be purified, find that the destructiveness of heart disturbance comes quickly. Don’t let it happen. If it does begin to happen, calm down. Don’t do anything, because whatever you do will be unfortunate. Let it come to rest, let it balance itself out, so that the heart is stable. Then the truth can be known, and one may move easily and naturally to give it expression. But you don’t know anything when the heart is disturbed. That is when human beings think they have really clear vision—they are full of resentment, anger, because of this and this and that, and the other thing, and they see so clearly! It is all nonsense. They don’t see anything as long as the heart is disturbed, except what comes by reason of a disturbed heart.

So we share this morning, in these moments together, that we may ourselves, individually, be consistent in our spiritual expression of the truth, thereby providing a symbol of Visible God for others. We don’t need the symbol. We are the truth in expression—no symbol required—but others need the symbol, that in them there may be an activation of the truth in their own hearts. Then perchance, it being activated, they will let their lives be conditioned by it. And so the truth emerges into expression—not all that clear and beautiful as it should be, but as much as is possible at the moment. Anyone who is letting this happen is on the way and should not be judged. How do you know what should happen while this process is proceeding?

So we share the responsibility of this process, in our own experience. Then we may provide a clearer, more exact, absolute symbol of Visible God on earth. Only so is this yearning in human hearts given the essential point of orientation which may allow that yearning to be fulfilled; not because they suck it in from somebody else, or from somewhere else, but because they naturally give it expression into their own living, to the Glory of God.

I have indeed seen the potential present in each one and had reverence and respect for that over the years. Certainly it could not have been just a matter of tolerating you: a job has to be done, so I will put up with the people who show up! No. Welcome! The welcome spirit has been offered, I trust, in my own expression, because there was the truth to be welcomed. One may feel perhaps a little lonely at times, simply in one’s own expression of the truth. There is the essential requirement of this little point to be filled out because there are many who are allowing the truth to be expressed, and then the more the truth is expressed through each one the more it is expressed through the Body which begins to form. And being expressed through the Body, it becomes the natural experience of all who compose that Body—no longer restricted to the rather insignificant amount of truth that may percolate through one person. It comes through many, and we have the privilege of enjoying this far wider scope because of each other.

If I have had a respect for your truth, and the increasing expression of it, I am sure that you would naturally have respect for the expression of this appearing through others, so that there may be a delight in the expanding outpouring of the Spirit of Truth. We all share in it then, to the Glory of God. Then there is the symbol, the Word being spoken, Visible God made manifest, for all whose hearts are open to receive it.

© emissaries of divine light