Individual  Preparation  For  Unified  Service

Martin Exeter   January 5, 1986

Perhaps this morning we might together reiterate a question which is asked of all of us: Why are we here present in the Chapel now? We designate this as a service, so we might answer: We are here to serve. How? We are assembled collectively to provide a facility, composed of our several hearts and minds, to receive heaven. In order for this to happen our hearts and our minds must properly be prepared to receive heaven.

We come into the Chapel week by week. Individually during the week we have had opportunity to prepare for what is rightly to occur collectively at the time of service. Particularly in times past I think this process has tended to be reversed. Perhaps we receive a spiritual boost during service which is supposed to last for the rest of the week; but on this basis the boost tends to peter out by the end of the week, so another boost is required. This is really not at all why we are present in the Chapel for service. Clearly, to receive a boost of some kind would place us in the position of having to be acted upon by some force, a spiritual force we trust, so as to get us rolling until friction brings us to a halt. On this basis no responsibility is being taken at all for allowing what should be brought forth in our living to increase. We really do need to recognize that our individual living during the week is a preparation for what is to occur collectively in a service.

We all have opportunity during the week to handle our circumstances, our relationships with one another and with others, in the power of the spirit which we have come to know, so that when we do assemble we might be with one accord in one place because we have been preparing for this day by day. If this is done, then by the end of the week there has been an increase in our experience of the accommodation of heaven, so that when we come together there might be a unified facility for the accommodation and the release of heaven during a service when we are specifically, in this collective sense, serving. The way I have described it now allows for an expanding experience week by week rather than a repetitive state of affairs where week by week we find ourselves again at square one. We know that this doesn’t really happen as it used to do in days past, because increasing responsibility is being taken individually for what occurs day by day during the week, during the month, during the year, and year by year.

We have a certain understanding that heaven has been absent from the earth and we ourselves have a responsibility for letting it be present. With heaven absent from the earth, as it has been, the world of human experience becomes smaller and smaller. This is seen in terms of means of communication in these days. It is indicated that the earth has become a very small place. We can travel anywhere in short order; or we don’t need to travel, we can stay home and communicate, after a fashion, with others most speedily. And it seems as though the earth has shrunk. This is looked upon as indicating progress but actually it simply reveals the absence of heaven, because the earth is a very minute speck of dust in a vast universe when heaven is absent; and human beings, imagining that they are making progress, are awakening to this fact. The earth becomes a very small place, a very crowded place, because it’s so small. The idea is that the human population has expanded considerably and therefore it’s very crowded. That may be part of it, but the rest of it is that the earth has shrunk. And so the earth without heaven is indeed totally insignificant when seen in the context of the universal whole. This is not a true picture, because the balancing aspect of the earth has been excluded, the heaven has been absent.

Human beings are responsible for the state of the world. This is easy to recognize in a collective sense, but each individual is inclined to imagine that it is not his or her fault that it is the way it is, and yet it is evidently the result of the content of the human hearts and minds of all individuals put together. And the result, the worldly state, is not very pleasing, to say the least. There may be pockets of pleasingness here and there, perhaps to some extent in our own immediate vicinity, although I note there is still some question in that regard in some minds and hearts. But what is present in the earthly sense is consequent upon what is present in human beings, ourselves included.

This corruption and violence which is observable in the world is not an extraneous condition that has somehow put in an appearance for no reason. It is present because of the corruption and the violence in human hearts and minds. If corruption and violence are present in human hearts and minds—and this seems to be obvious seeing that the world is full of it—then heaven clearly is being excluded, because human hearts and minds are full of other stuff, describable perhaps in terms of corruption and violence. We have noted these things and have, in some measure at least, acknowledged the corruption and violence that has been present in our own hearts and minds as individuals. This is the only way it can be dealt with. The foolishness of trying to deal with the corruption and the violence in the world after it has appeared in the world should be obvious to any intelligent person. It doesn’t seem that there are too many intelligent people on earth. What needs to be dealt with is the corruption in individual human minds and hearts. And when that is said, most people think of someone else’s mind and heart. How are we going to deal with the corruption and the violence in the hearts and minds of those terrorists out there? Well, the answer to that is, you’re not. Very simple. The question is: How is the corruption and violence to be handled in one’s own heart and mind? And we know that it has been there.

There has been the necessity then of recognizing that this state of affairs has been present in oneself, in order that one might come to the point of being willing to relinquish it. It has never been suggested that we should try to make it over into something else. If it is corrupt and violent, well that is the way it is. You can’t make it over into something else—that is what it is. The only thing to do is to relinquish it altogether. Let it go. But one will not do this unless one recognizes that it is present, admits that it is present, and exhibits a willingness to let it go. This process, which is essential to make space for heaven, has been looked upon by some as maintaining an interest in negativity. Of course, negativity in this sense is intended to mean that one is saying no to the truth, and therefore if you look at the things which cause one to say no to the truth, one will be involved in destructiveness. But until one is willing to admit that these things have been and are present still to some degree, there is no basis for letting go of them. We remain identified, fooling ourselves that it isn’t so.

It seems to some that it would be very nice to think only of beautiful things, lovely things. In fact a suggestion was made along these lines: Think on the things that are of good report. Okay, you can think on those things, but there must be a recognition of the fact that there is a lot of evil report around in one’s own attitude, in one’s own heart and mind. If one doesn’t recognize that, acknowledge it and repent, it will not depart. In fact it is the very attitude of recognizing it as being present that indicates that it is in the process of departing, because as long as one refuses to recognize it, acknowledge it, one is identified with it. But the very moment one begins to see, yes it is there, then it is in the process of being separated from one’s own point of observation; it is in the process of passing away. So there is nothing wrong with recognizing it; in fact it is absolutely essential to the process of passing. It passes away in order to make space for heaven. That is what we are gathered here in service to allow to happen on a unified basis.

We have been living our individual lives during the week, relinquishing these things—recognizing them, then relinquishing them. We recognize them, let them go, in preparation for the time when we come together collectively, with hearts at least somewhat purified and minds somewhat yielded to the unified movement of the spirit, so that we may stop blocking heaven from coming into the earth. That is what has been happening. It isn’t as though: “Well now we’re going to be positive and we’re going to bring heaven into the earth.” Human beings can’t do that. That is what they have been trying to do in their rather ridiculous ways for a long time, to try to force the earth to be heaven without letting heaven come into the earth.

As has been suggested, heaven is not at all reluctant about coming into the earth, but if what is present in human minds and hearts constitutes a barrier to that coming, it can’t get into the earth. It does exert a certain amount of pressure against the barrier, so that the barrier ultimately either acknowledges that it is a barrier and is willing to pass away, or refuses to do that and gets pushed out of the way, in which case there is no one present anymore to experience the heaven. The barrier doesn’t experience the heaven except as a pressure to change. If there is a refusal to change because there is a refusal to acknowledge that the barrier is there, then the barrier just simply gets pushed out of the way. We know these principles but it doesn’t do any harm to acknowledge that we know them, and that what is required is that individually in our lives during the week we allow these barriers to dissolve so that we do not cling to prior attitudes, opinions, views, etc.

Making space for heaven, heaven delightedly rushes into the space. It has been a tremendous struggle for human beings to keep it out. We all have experience of the effort, the sweat of the brow, that is required to keep heaven out. Usually human beings don’t look upon it that way; they don’t see that that is what they are doing. But it must be what they are doing; otherwise heaven would be here. Is heaven, the joy, the beauty, the wonder of heaven, consistently known in our own experience as individuals? Is it the fact that we have nothing more to complain about? If we still have something to complain about, something to resent perhaps, something to be fearful of, obviously there is some sort of barrier still present, preventing heaven from rushing in. How tiring this business of trying to keep heaven out is. Fundamentally we have defined it as the usual human attempt to get one’s own way, to do what one thinks one wants to do; and most people are looking around for others to encourage them in this way.

Sometimes there are those who have destructive habits which they themselves recognize. I suppose one can define such habits in various ways. The basic change that is required is not undertaken. It is just something that the individual wants for him- or herself, and the reason why they want it is for themselves. Until a person reaches a point where there is a willingness to come out of this human trap, acknowledging all these things which keep them in the trap and letting go of them because there is a love for the truth, there is no answer. One can try this technique and that technique for doing the things one wants to do, and one may be seemingly successful this way or that way. Most people are not successful, even seemingly. They get rid of one trouble and they find they have another, because they are just going around in a circle. One needs to come out of it, and that requires relinquishing these things.

If it is necessary to speak about the things which need to be relinquished, that is part of the process. I know for myself it would be simply wonderful if one never had to refer to those things again. But as long as one maintains some sort of identity with them, they have to be recognized, acknowledged and relinquished if there is to be movement in the process by which heaven is brought into the earth. When heaven is brought into the earth, the earth becomes an immense place filled with substance. What that would mean is not presently comprehensible because heaven is not brought into the earth. The only way it could be discovered as to what that state of affairs would be is to let heaven come into the earth. And it is man who has the responsibility, the opportunity, the privilege of allowing this to be so. Heaven cannot get into the earth without man. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that what is present in human beings has formed a barrier which utterly prevented the heaven getting into the earth. So we have an increasing state of hell, which merely is the absence of heaven; and the earth shrinks, shrinks, shrinks. Very often as people get older they shrink, shrink, shrink. This is nicely explained by saying, “Oh well, ascension is going on.” Maybe, maybe. I suppose it could be said that ascension is going on insofar as the earth is concerned, then, seeing it is shrinking so in its old age. And perhaps that is part of the picture, but what is going to be left? Just a little cinder?

So week by week we assemble in the Chapel, having diligently prepared during the week as individuals in our individual dealings with each other and with our circumstances, relinquishing those elements of barrier which arise in our experience as they arise, so that we may be clean and pure—clean hands and pure hearts—by the time we come together for unified service. We each bring clean minds and hearts for that purpose. These can easily be blended together by the spirit that moves through them, and heaven may be brought into the earth. We don’t judge by the appearance, which is what virtually everybody does do. They look at the circumstance and, “Ah, heaven isn’t here.” But looking at that circumstance one is looking through one’s own heart and mind. Is heaven in one’s own heart and mind? That is the only question, really. When it is, then you can see; but until it is, anything that is observed is observed through the state of one’s own heart and mind. We know that.

We have some windows in the Chapel to let in a little light. What can you see through that window? Well, there is some light out there. It must be daytime. That is about all, isn’t it? We could have the glass cleared up a little bit, smoothed out, however; but I think the glass of our own hearts and minds is very mottled still, colored. The glass is not very clear. It’s probably wavy too, ups and downs, you know, moods. Everybody in the human state has moods. They excuse themselves for their moods: “Please excuse my nastiness.” Why? It is inexcusable. So judge not by the appearance. Don’t try to figure things out by looking through the glass.

Accept the state of heaven because the barriers are relinquished from within oneself; one diligently lets them be relinquished moment by moment by moment. Then everything begins to clarify and one sees things differently; but one doesn’t see things clearly yet, therefore how futile are all these views and opinions. We know how futile that is, because they clash with someone else’s views and opinions. None of them mean anything. There is no awareness in clarity of what is actually present, just judgments. “Well it looks this way to me, and because it looks this way to me, that’s my opinion!” Well perhaps we are not so vehement anymore in this sort of way, but back in there there is, “Ah, I must keep my view of things.” Did that ever occur to you as being something of your own character? “I know I’m right. I have been looking at that circumstance, I have been looking at that person for years”—through a dirty glass. And with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. That is the fact of the matter. Let it all be clear and there is no need for judgment, no inclination to judge. That is the way it is and it is exactly the way it should be because the Law works. On the basis of all the factors in the picture everything is the way it should be. What is the point of judging it then? We may not like it, but that is a human view and a human opinion, isn’t it? Likes and dislikes are just that: “It doesn’t suit me.” Well who are you? Are you someone whom the universe is concerned to suit? How ridiculous!

Let us allow this stuff which has been maintained to be relinquished because we do it moment by moment by moment as individuals during the week, as we are looking at it now. We are not going to run out of weeks! We keep on doing it, and it brings us together on a Sunday morning, for instance, as we are here now, that, having carefully prepared during the week, we are ready to let the unification, the heaven, be the experience—the unified state. And because the heaven is present in our consciousness it is present everywhere on earth, not recognized everywhere on earth by human beings who have all these barriers up—of course not—but it is there. And because it is there and creative action is the characteristic of heaven, all the rubbish is being cleared away. We know that is so because we are letting it happen in our own experience. We don’t know that it is so, and it doesn’t seem to be so, if we are not letting it happen in our own experience. We look out in the world: “Terrible, isn’t it!” But let it happen in oneself.

Man was created to let heaven blend with the earth, and he does that by letting it blend in himself. If it doesn’t blend in me, it doesn’t blend in my world; and each one can say that. And if you don’t see heaven emerging in your world you know why. It isn’t emerging in you, that is all. Let us let it emerge as individuals because we have the opportunity, because everything is provided, everything is brought to us. To this end we came into the world. And individually moment by moment during the week things are brought, things are brought which need to be relinquished, cleared out of the way so that there is space for heaven. As soon as they are relinquished, there heaven is immediately. It is not coming from some far-distant star and taking millions of light years to get here. It is present now, waiting to come forth when the barriers are out of the way.

There is only one person who can relinquish the barriers and that is oneself. No one else can do it. You can’t do it for anybody else either. I can’t do it for anybody. I can let it happen in me perhaps, but you can let it happen in you. I am merely drawing to your attention that this is the way it works. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. I know that saying is true! But one can lead oneself to water and drink, but how few are willing to do that. They want to have their own way. They want to go here, they want to go there, they want to do the other thing, all for the Lord in these days, for Emissaries. I say, nonsense. Do something here first, exactly where you are! It is the only place you can do it.

We rejoice in the opportunity of preparation during the week, that we may come to this time, these sacred moments when the unification in heaven may be the experience because we have done what we need to do day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, moment by moment, during the week. Then what a wonder is known because heaven is known, and there is a wonder in heaven. We begin to discover what that wonder is. And when all the rubbish is out we can consider heavenly things because there is space to consider them. We can’t consider them otherwise. Some will say: “Oh let’s think about heavenly things.” How would you know what heavenly things are? Only when there is space, and heaven comes in, do we know. And as it comes in, we know and we begin to be in position to consider the creative action which occurs in heaven and how the dominion thereof may be set in the earth. But unless the heaven is present, how do we know that? We don’t. The mind may question and ask: “Well what are these things that need to be set in the earth now?” The mind doesn’t know, no idea; all it can have is evil imagination, until heaven is actually present because the space is clear and ready to receive. When there is a space of stillness, of quietness, to receive heaven, then heaven is present and the light shines.

Let the light shine. Let heaven be present. Let the evil imaginations of the thoughts of human hearts pass away. Let the corruption and the violence pass away in one’s own heart and mind, and behold there is a state of newness, the state of heaven. And the heaven blends with the earth, and the earth becomes an immense place with a destiny that is beyond the comprehension or imagination of petty human minds and hearts. Let it be so, that week by week there may be an expansion taking place, more room for heaven Sunday by Sunday by Sunday, as the pattern is now. It is not just a matter of Sunday by Sunday by Sunday; Monday by Monday by Monday, and so on; all the way through day by day there is the increase. The light shines. All things are made new.

© emissaries of divine light