He Who Would Walk In The King's Court
Anniversary Meditation
Uranda September 15, 1953 p.m.
The Truth, through the mind, through the working of intelligence, provides the design, the factors of form in concept or belief; and Love, through the heart, animates that which is accepted by the mind. And the physical body receives that which is so established, for the body as such has no choice but to receive that which is imposed upon it. We realize this process by which something ascends to a given point in the human being, by his acceptance of the Kingdom-of-Heaven-at-hand idea in the pattern of Truth, and Love comes down out of Heaven from God to animate, or give Life to, the accepted idea.
Human beings accept certain things in the sense of intellectual beliefs, but that which is animated in the actual expression of their lives takes form on the basis of resentment ideas, fear ideas, rebellion ideas, or hate ideas. The real feeling manifests in the range of something which carries a critical, condemnatory or destructive attitude, and that which is of the Divine Design, even though it be seen, is not animated in the individual life because there is no particular feeling in regard to it. I would share with you a meditation which takes into consideration not only this point but the other points we have covered so far, in relationship to polarity or Centering in Deity, under the One Law, and the principle of giving into the expression of life, that which is to return, for, “As ye sow, so also shall ye reap.” In undertaking to live by what is sometimes called The Golden Rule—“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”—human beings very often interpret the Golden Rule idea on the basis of selfish, self-centered designs, and they think they would like such-and-such a thing done unto them, when the human interpretation of that which the individual would like to have done unto himself is very often contrary to the true design.
We need to begin to see these things in relationship to the reality of control. We have used the word control many times and have considered it from the standpoint of Dominion, or the Kingdom of Heaven that is at hand, but until the Cycles of Illumination begin to unfold, the Kingdom idea, or the Dominion idea, even though it be accepted intellectually, does not become adequately animated through the heart, and consequently there is no force in the individual life in relationship to the idea. One of the factors which enters in here, if polarity is not correct, is that of self-centeredness. Illumination comes when the mind accepts the Truth idea, and the Dominion idea, in a manner which allows the heart to animate the Dominion, Kingdom idea. Any constructive idea which becomes animated through the heart brings some degree of Illumination—vividness of comprehension and appreciation; for Illumination is simply comprehension coupled with due appreciation. By reason of appreciation there is the acceptance of value.
Now, the human tendency, when elements of self-centeredness remain, is to devise a pattern of concept or idea which the individual deems to be acceptable to himself, which is to some degree animated by self-interest through the feeling nature, and then to ask, as it were—in attitude, in practical function—to ask that this individually devised idea pattern be received as a completed, or ready-made object into Center. The individual in this particular situation is following the world method. He devises something in his own mind, according to the pattern of what he deems to be pleasing, desirable or suitable, and then he prays the Lord to receive into Center, as a part of Center, that which he himself has devised. When that which is so developed is not received into Center, the individual feels that he himself is being rejected, or in some fashion inadequately appreciated.
The right pattern, the Kingdom Pattern, causes the individual to relinquish his ideas and concepts of that which is seemingly desirable, and he does this relinquishing without qualms because he knows that such talents and abilities as he may have are derived from the Lord, and that the Lord is not arbitrarily going to disregard that which the Lord Himself devised, that which the Lord Himself bequeathed, in image and likeness of God to the human form, in capacity and ability. Therefore, there is true trust, and the individual knows that that which is true in relationship to himself will endure, and that which is not true will not endure. Therefore, he has no qualms about trusting the Lord and he feels no necessity of trying to impose his self-made designs upon the Lord if he is, himself, as an individual, to be received by the Lord. Therefore, such an individual, responding truly under the Law, in harmony with the principles we have considered, comes to Center as an individual, naked insofar as the clothing of his own concepts is concerned. That which he has woven in concept he sets aside, willing to trust the Lord's designing. He knows that whatever comes forth must be given form by himself, that he has a part to play in any case, and so he comes to stand, naked and unashamed, before the Lord—mentally naked, his mind at peace and at rest.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Having allowed the spirit of shame to vanish away because he has sought and received forgiveness, he is ready to stand naked and unashamed before the Lord, not physical nakedness but mental nakedness. While the individual seeks to retain the clothing of his own mental designing, he is, regardless of any concept contrariwise, still subject to the spirit of shame; for the individual does not clear from that spirit of shame, in actual fact, until he has sought and received forgiveness. In the process of receiving forgiveness, the individual relinquishes his predetermined concepts, ideas, and beliefs, with respect to the particularized pattern of his own being and of his function as a Being. Human beings, in this regard, have failed to recognize how consistently, how repeatedly, they project from themselves the concept patterns which they are, in effect, asking the Lord to receive into Center. They have designed and devised something which they deemed to be good, and they come to present their ideas, their designing, before the Lord, asking the Lord to receive their designing and to relinquish the Divine Design. When the Spirit of Animation does not immediately appear from Center then, to truly give meaning to that which is so humanly designed, the individual feels that he has somehow been rejected and he begins to try to give meaning to his own designing, and in so doing he begins to engender the support of others in order to give form to his own designing. The human being who develops these ready-made designs and tries to persuade the Lord to receive them into Center is defeating himself, and is not coming before the Lord naked, and therefore he wears the garments of shame, even though he may imagine, in his arrogance and egotism, that he is no longer ashamed or that he has relinquished the spirit of shame. But the shamelessness here mentioned, in relationship to coming before the Lord naked and unashamed, is something that can be a reality in the individual only when he comes naked—naked of his own idea-concepts which would have to be received by the Lord in order to receive the individual.
The Lord is always ready to receive the individual—there is never any question in this matter—any individual, every individual, you! The Lord is ready at any time to receive you. You do not have to wait until some peculiar season works out. The Lord is ready in any moment to receive you. If there is delay, it is because you are not yet ready to be received by the Lord, and the delay is not with respect to the season of the Lord but with respect to the seasons of your yielding, your response, and your coming before the Lord. And while the individual maintains the mental garments of his own designing in the sense of concept, idea and belief, he is, regardless of any of the concepts he may have notwithstanding, still wearing the garments of shame. The individual is not supposed to devise and design his own garments, and the Lord is not supposed to receive the garments of human designing. From the Lord’s standpoint, there is always a readiness and a willingness to receive the individual, but the individual, in effect, says: “Receive the garments of my designing and I will let you receive me.” But the Lord does not receive the garments of the human designing, and therefore He does not receive the individual. It is of these that it is written that, “They know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
In the Cycles of Illumination, each one who continues to move forward comes at last to know that when he seems to himself to be naked, as he stands unashamed before the Lord, he is in that moment not naked. While he tries to come to the Lord clothed so that he will not be naked, he is, in fact, naked. But, when he at last reaches the point where he seems to himself to be naked, then he begins to wear White Raiments so that the shame of his nakedness shall not appear. As we begin to comprehend these things, we can have a deeper realization of the reality of control, for the human mind assumes that control must come in the form and fashion of his own designing, and he knows not that he is naked—naked in the sense of the garment of White Raiment, not naked in the sense of the garment of his own designing. When we come to stand naked and unashamed before the Lord, we are not, to the Lord, naked; for then we are clothed with the White Raiment of the Lord's designing. And the Light of Illumination is the White Raiment.
Man may receive, and to some degree comprehend, the Truth idea. He may hear it, and in the sense of belief accept it, and forthwith assume that he has the basic condition which will allow Illumination. But he takes his view of Truth and designs it and shapes it, and moulds it after the fashion which he deems to be pleasing to himself according to his assumption of Deity, or the prerogatives of Deity. Therefore, he has woven his own garment and abides in darkness. But he who truly trusts the Lord, knowing that the Lord has granted him his abilities, his capacities, his opportunities, in the image and likeness of God, has no fear that the Reality of his own Being is going to be violated when he allows the Divine Design to appear. And the White Raiment of the Divine Design is the Light of Illumination. Having relinquished the human design, the individual is in position to see the Divine Design.
In the past, as I have presented to you various word pictures of the Divine Design, so that you could comprehend enough of it to be willing to receive it, the human tendency has been for you to take the Truth idea of the Divine Design and weave it into the pattern of your own designing, thinking that you were serving the Lord, thinking that you were going to have comprehension and use your God-given opportunities, presumably in service. This continual distortion, whereby the White Raiment was rejected, has delayed the outpouring of the Spirit in the larger sense and kept you from the deeper Illumination wherein you come to wear the garment of White Raiment in relationship to your mind and heart. The body has no choice but to receive that which is imposed upon it, the garments that appear through the working of the mind and the heart. It is not needful that you be concerned about getting the garment of White Raiment for your body; for your body wears the raiment imposed upon it by the mind—your body wears the raiment in outer form which your mind wears in the invisible realm of mind. The White Raiment for the mind makes possible the manifestation of White Raiment for the body, not in the sense of getting some new clothes but in the sense of the vibrancy of Being which appears through the body, the reality of Living.
I have seen, right here, the process by which the Truth that is presented is taken and woven into a self-centered garment of human designing. This prevents the manifestation of real control, because it places the individual in the position of asking God, the Lord, the Father, Center—whatever name may be used—to receive that which is of the human designing. God is supposed to revamp, rearrange, redesign, all that He has created, so that what you have designed may be received into relationship to the whole, on a basis that will permit it to fit correctly. When you learn to receive your garment of understanding for the mind from Center, you will have true Illumination, because then you will be receiving into yourself that which does fit with the whole.
Here is the secret in relationship to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the reason why man has fallen, the reason why man destroys his pattern of living and being. Man is constantly asking God to receive the humanly designed pattern, intact, into the Whole. Man is offering it as a gift to God, but it does not fit, it does not belong to the Whole, it has no meaning to the Whole. It has meaning only to the individual who designed it. So, instead of trying to project something into Center, in the Cycles of Illumination, the individual learns to receive something from Center so that that which manifests through himself has a true relationship to the Whole, according to the Design that includes All. And, having comprehended that which is so designed, the individual is wearing the White Raiment of Illumination. We must reach the point of being willing to stand naked and unashamed before the Lord, not physically naked but mentally and emotionally naked, insofar as garments of our own designing are concerned. And then we are no longer naked, for the Lord beholds us enfolded in the White Raiment of Reality, and the Reality of Illumination is the individual's realization of the presence of the White Raiment which one must wear that the shame of his nakedness may not appear.
We have many unnecessary delays because there has not been adequate Illumination, adequate Realization, with respect to these things. Remember, it is not the Season of the Lord which delays your Illumination; it is your season; for when you are ready to relinquish the mental and emotional clothing of your own designing and receive the White Raiment which the Lord has prepared for you, then shall you know Illumination. Then shall you cease eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then shall you find that your capacities and abilities in the image and likeness of God are utilized and appreciated. But that which you would impose of your own designing prevents the true uses of your capacities. What is in control? There have been certain tendencies for the individual to imagine that Spiritual revelation through himself has established some supposedly great and important understanding, and such individuals expect the Lord to receive that which has been so designed, as if it were a part of Center. There are those things which can be seen and known as tests for that which is supposed to be Divine Revelation through the individual. Even if there be some Truth, we find that the Truth has been woven into the human pattern and formed into clothing which the human being imagines to be adequate for his use in the King's Court. Blessed Ones, he who would walk in the King's Court must wear the garments which the King provides. No matter how long you take in weaving garments, no matter how much energy or expense in any way, no matter how fine you deem it to be, it is not acceptable in the King's Court. Mentally and emotionally speaking, you must come to stand naked and unashamed before the Lord, that you may receive the King's Garment and walk in the King's Court, and then shall you know the reality of Divine Control by which your talents and abilities may have true meaningfulness in the Kingdom of the King.
Blessed Ones, let the Name of the King be hallowed unto you, that His Dominion may come into manifestation in and through you, that the White Raiment of Illumination may clothe your minds and hearts to the end that you may let the Will of the King be done in earth as it is in Heaven, and that you may come at last, in the Cycles of Illumination, to know the reality of this great Truth, “For Thine, O King, is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever.” Aum-en.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Transformation And Transmutation
Martin Cecil July 20, 1980
When the spiritual action is present the design in form appears. This is the principle which we have doubtless known for a long time but by which the restoration is made possible. Behold, I make all things new. As there is the means on earth by which the spiritual action may appear, then the substance in the realm of form leaps to reveal it. All this can occur very quickly when there is spiritual action and to the extent that there are people on the face of the earth who are willing to let it happen, who are no longer insisting that material substance should be held in the structured forms set up by fallen human nature.
We see some of these structured forms in difficulties in these days, and there are people who are seeking to put props under them so that they may continue to exist, because it has seemed unthinkable to human beings that what has been built in this fashion by fallen human nature should be allowed to pass away. Obviously if it did pass away suddenly, by reason of nuclear war for instance, what indeed would be left? This has been a horror of great darkness to human consciousness, and it is not really our concern that everything should pass away by reason of a clap of thunder. If it happens that way there is indeed not much left, at least insofar as mankind is concerned. So, while we recognize that all things must be made new, it is the things that are present that need to be transformed and transmuted.
Many have been inclined to take the attitude that what is present in this human nature world all has to go and we're just marking time waiting for it to go. It is a matter of transformation. Whatever we are doing we are doing that our presence may bring what is required to permit transformation. The experience will change because the transformation will continue, and what now is will not be there eternally. It will doubtless be something else, but that something else usually appears on the basis of increments. Clearly there needs to be some transformation. We have begun to see the spiritual responsibility which rests upon us who have some vision and understanding of these things, so that what needs to happen to allow that transformation to occur may do so. You don't have any preconceived ideas as to what it is going to be. We know what it is, to some extent at least, now, and we recognize that we are there present with whatever it is in our own area of living and therefore what it is that is being offered for transformation.
As there begin to be those who, having this conscious awareness, allow their living to be accordingly—they've heard the Tone, but now it becomes the Tone of their living—then all things begin to be made new according to the true design. No sweat of the brow. It is just simply a matter of what we have referred to as spiritual expression. When there begins to be an increasingly focused and unified spiritual expression because of you and others, then that has effect. The Lord builds the house on this basis; not because He insists upon tearing things down first but because the creative process allows for transformation. As that transformation occurs, changes work out—changes that don't always look all that creative or constructive but are nevertheless a part of the process—until the point is reached where there is adequate focus of the creative expression of spirit appearing for the design to take form in material substance, reflecting the fact that there is an adequate focus of spiritual expression for it to occur.
What needs to appear must appear on the basis of the fact that it is spiritually activated. There must be the spiritual substance present in all concerned so that the spirit can operate in that substance, and that itself is revealed in the quality of the living of those concerned. This will, in its own times and seasons, bring forth what is required in form. When we let whatever it is that should take form do so on the basis of spiritual expression it will be right, but it may take a while for this focus of spiritual expression to become sufficiently clarified, sufficiently unified, sufficiently present, for the creative process really to begin to work so that you can observe it, you can observe the reflection. The real value is not in the physical form, although that is essential, but in what is made possible by reason of the physical form and what that physical form represents. It always requires someone to provide a point of focus but it requires many more to generate the substance which will allow that point of focus to have some meaning. This, after all, is the Third Sacred School, the spiritual expression plane approach, so what takes form will take form symbolically on a basis that is revealing of what is happening.
There has been transformation going on for a considerable period of time—a gradual transformation—letting changes occur in all concerned, with the expectation of coming to the point of transmutation somewhere along the way. One can go on in the unfolding cycles of transformation more or less indefinitely, at least until you are dead, but if that is all that has happened, nothing has happened. There have been these cycles in times past, cycles of transformation. The only purpose for this is that there might be the experience of transmutation, when fallen human nature is finally no longer present in the individuals who are carrying the focus of responsibility. We are aware of this focus of responsibility which has been offered to us. We know what is happening, at least up to a point. We know what is required. Most of us have the theory down pat. All this has occurred because there has been a creative cycle at work, designed to make possible the restoration at this point. This creative cycle at work is not a little thing. It is related to what is happening in much larger areas of spiritual operation which go beyond the form of this earth. Because something has been happening spiritually and there has been a movement in the creative cycles of life itself, the changes have been occurring within the scope of our experience in order that there might be the provision of true leadership for what is to occur in the world as a whole, true leadership at the level where mankind is.
I think leadership has usually been looked upon as something which is going to be somehow imposed upon the world: spiritual power will be present, and now everybody has got to toe the mark. I don't think that is illustrative of your own experience, although you may at times have put yourself in the position of bucking the movement of that creative expression of life and felt that you were being imposed upon. But that was your own action. It wasn't in fact an imposition by somebody else or by circumstances or by God. We bring our own troubles on our own heads, and I trust that we are all honest enough now to admit it, although sometimes it seems that it is forgotten under the stress of circumstances. Something has been happening over these years. The Lord has been patient and we have, I'm sure at times, tried His patience. But He has always been patient, that those who were experiencing the greater vision might come to the point where they are willing to allow the transmutation to occur. But when that point is reached in the outworking cycles it is something that must occur, because if it doesn't, that's the end.
Now we are approaching the time of absoluteness from the spiritual standpoint. This is something which relates to spirit; and there must be present those who know the absoluteness of spiritual expression. We either are with it or that's it! Obviously that point must be reached somewhere if anything is ever to happen. We have sufficient vision to see this and to understand it; but there has been sufficient of something else present also to put off the day and to anticipate that the patience of the Lord will continue. The squeeze is on now to a greater extent than it was before. Let us see this with respect to our own experience spiritually speaking. If you transfer what you think you know in the experience of transformation into the experience of transmutation—should it be possible to do that, which incidentally it isn't—you would wreck what was happening in that new state. It is not the same. Never take the attitude that what you think you know at that level is going to be applicable when there is a moving into the experience of transmutation. It is a totally new aircraft. It should be a somewhat humbling experience to all of us, really, having gained a certain amount of expertise, what we would think of as spiritual expertise, to find it is spiritual expertise in fallen human nature. And fallen human nature cannot reach the level which is required if the restoration is to be a fact. It isn't just a matter of refining our abilities to function at the levels of transformation. That is the fallen human nature state which passes away.
These cycles do not occur in an isolated way; everybody is involved. Here is a creative cycle of life, and we are either with it or we aren't. I'm not saying that if there are those who prove that they are with it in sufficient numbers—and there is a factor of numbers here involved—that those who are not with it are out of luck. But what must happen must happen first with those who are consciously aware of what it is that needs to happen, and then the world afterwards. That is the leadership. Let it happen with us first, and in that transmuted experience there is an absoluteness, an exactness. If you are inclined to be sloppy in the transformation experience, you would be absolutely useless in the transmuted experience. And I have observed an immense amount of sloppiness. We've spoken of discipline. I'm not thinking of discipline in the transmuted sense as something imposed externally. No. It is something that one absolutely requires of oneself. Only on this basis, as there are those who know the truth in this way, can there be the restoration.
The restoration occurs with a few first; and because it has occurred with a few it can occur with the many later. We are not playing children's games, but I would have to admit that a great deal of what has occurred has simply been children's games. Now we know. Now we are aware of what the spirit of God can do when we are willing to let it happen within the range of our own experience. It is not something that we can do, obviously, from the standpoint of fallen human nature. Of course not. Fallen human nature is being maneuvered out of the picture in one way or another. It is something that is done by the spirit of God. So, we share the responsibility of letting that spirit be absolute in our own experience. Surely we know the quality of the Tone by now sufficiently to give us the honesty to change course immediately when there is a perception of the fact that our behavior, in whatever way, doesn't really reveal the true quality of that Tone. So in oneness of that spirit we may easily move, letting all things consequently be made new.
© emissaries of divine light
Snap of the Fingers!
Martin Cecil July 25, 1979 Assembly
How great is our experienced stature? We can have some awareness of the possibility that there is greater stature than we have been aware of; however, what are we aware of? What we are aware of gives indication as to how operational our stature is. In our recognition of the necessities of spiritual government we easily see that a large stature is necessary. Who provides that stature? There is no government without those who compose it, so it is our experienced stature that is important. We are inclined glibly to say we need to be able to encompass the world, but how do we do it? We may bring it down a little closer to home by saying that individually we need to encompass our individual worlds. How big is your individual world—the operational portion of it, that is? We can say that our individual worlds have great scope, but that is mostly imaginary at the moment. The extent to which we actually do encompass our individual worlds establishes the bounds of those worlds in operational experience.
We are well aware that most people are totally incapable of encompassing any world—their own individual worlds or certainly anything larger than that. But what about us—ones who are presumably concerned about generating the substance of government? We have generated a certain quantity and quality of the substance of education—that has been done. Not sufficiently as yet perhaps; there's a lot more to be generated in this regard. But how much substance of government has been generated? This is not generated apart from ourselves. How much substance of government do we have actually present because it's been generated? Now this is a personal matter of consideration to start with, because it depends upon the extent to which we have accepted our individual worlds and are providing spiritual government there. While we may have these large visions of something worldwide, it always starts right where we are, with respect to the rather small world that human beings tend to magnify disproportionately. But it is in this actually rather small world that the evidence of spiritual government needs to be made known, because it is on this basis, when we have a spiritually governed little world around us, that we are generating the substance which, when combined with the substance generated by others, gives us sufficient substance to begin to extend the borders of our tent, so that we include in our field of government whatever can be encompassed by this larger realm of generated substance. So it all always comes back to what we do individually with respect to our individual worlds.
Now here is something I find myself running into all the time—and that is the necessity of accepting one's world the way it is. The world that the individual has, populated by whoever it is populated by, is the world that has been brought to that individual and is the world of his responsibility. I suppose it may be said that it is included in my world of responsibility, but that individual is specifically responsible for that world. And so, no one needs to come moaning about the way that other people are behaving in that world and explaining, as very often is done, at great length as to why they cannot do what they're supposed to be doing in their world because of the behavior of everybody else. That's childish, isn't it! That's ducking out from responsibility, because there is no one else responsible for that world but that person. You are responsible for you, and that includes everything that is included in your world. Each of us has that responsibility. There is the inclination to judge what is present in our worlds on the basis of our pre-established concepts, so we may say, “Well, this person is not behaving as he should.” That may or may not be true; it's altogether beside the point anyway. That's the world with which you are dealing. And if all you can do with respect to an attitude which you judge to be some way it shouldn't be is to complain about it, to refuse to accept it, and say, “Well, Lord, when you change that world around and get this person to respond the way he should be responding, then I'll accept it,” what's the use of that? We're here to transform the actual world, not the imaginary world!
In our momentary daily living we have a world with all the people inhabiting it. How are we going to handle that? Well, we say in spiritual expression—but that gets lost in the shuffle, generally, when a person begins to consider the behavior of others. Who cares! It may or may not be right, but it has no bearing in the matter whatsoever; because people are behaving the way they are behaving, and that is what we have to handle. And we're not sitting around waiting for people to behave according to our pre-established concepts—we might have a long wait! And what would be the point anyway? Would the world be a better place if everybody behaved according to our concepts, do you think? I very much doubt it. It would probably be far more confused than it is. So we accept what the Lord brings to us—whatever it is. And our stature will be revealed by the way we handle the thing. How are we going to handle it? If the only thing we can think of doing is to complain about it and to blame the Lord for bringing this circumstance—it shouldn't be this way—then of what earthly value are we? Certainly no heavenly value.
To reach a point where we can accept our individual worlds exactly the way they are enables us collectively to accept the larger world exactly the way it is. But if we haven't been able to accept our smaller worlds we're certainly not going to be in position to accept the larger world in the way that it should be accepted. Our attitude toward this larger world will be exactly the same as our attitude toward the smaller world. And we'll see all those things out there worthy of complaint. And if it so happens that one has a task to perform beyond the confines of the structure of concepts, what are you going to do out there? Just put up with it? “Well, this is the world you know; one has to do one's best there, but you can't really accomplish anything, because of the behavior of all these people—it's ridiculous.” Well, I'm sure it is, but what are you going to do about it? How is your behavior? Ridiculous too!
Now let us see this again from the standpoint of what has been called focalization, because we all carry points of focus. Focalization is usually looked at simply from the standpoint of standing underneath something and looking up. Obviously there is a need to have right orientation in the upward sense, and this is a first necessity—one that is rather neglected very often in the practical experience of daily living. But there is also the fact that one is a point of focus relative to a world for which one is responsible—a populated world. There is no one who does not have a higher point of focus. Some may have looked at me and said “Well, you don't.” Don't I? Do you think we'd have any ministry if I didn't? We may look upon this matter from the standpoint of personal freedom, which is what usually causes the difficulties with human beings. It isn't a matter of personal freedom in the human sense, is it? In that regard I trust I have no personal freedom whatsoever! And I trust the same is true of you. I don't think it altogether is, at times; but certainly I'm sure that all of you have the idea that it should be so anyway. It needs to be actually so. I have no personal freedom, really. Whatever is required from the standpoint of the expression and action of the spirit of God, that must be. Well, where did personal freedom go, then? What is it that needs to be done? On that basis there's no more freedom in the human sense—none at all. And if we attempt to exercise freedom in that way, we violate our integrity every time. And violating our integrity we set in motion a cycle of experience which will bring back the results thereof. No one can violate their integrity with impunity. We know the Law works—at least we say we know it. As you sow, so also do you reap.
How about angelic freedom? Do you think in our operation on earth we have complete angelic freedom? No, not at all. Obviously in the world the way it is angels are very much restricted. They're very much restricted by the exercise of human freedom. But we may see that angelically speaking the extent of freedom which we may experience relates to the extent of response that is being offered. If very little response is being offered out of our world, there is very little freedom for that fulness of angelic expression which is available to be expressed. Because of the very restricted response when the Master was on earth, what He was able to offer was also very restricted. Human beings have thought of it as marvelous: look at all those miracles! But in actual fact He was able to offer virtually nothing in comparison to what was available, simply by reason of the fact that there was a lack of the response which would have permitted it.
Now we all find ourselves in this same situation. Does this mean that angelically speaking we're always going to be frustrated? There are lots of people who indulge in frustration. They find themselves in a situation which does not conform to their expectations and so they decide to be frustrated. But it was their own decision. Nobody can frustrate you but you. Nobody! Do you agree with that point, I wonder—well, you can nod your heads—but do you agree? That's the question. Because every time you indulge in feeling frustrated you are saying that someone else is responsible for it. There is no need to be frustrated. No one needs to be frustrated. I suppose in a sense I've had opportunity above all others to be frustrated—by the nonsense that has been dished up, and dished up, and dished up over the years, quite unnecessarily, because those concerned simply rejected the abundance of spiritual provision that had been made. They acted as though it didn't exist. They acted as though I'd never said anything, never offered anything. I would delightedly acknowledge that there is far more genuine substance evident in the expression of some now than has been so in the past. And this is revealed in various ways—revealing how much of the real thing there is. All I'm concerned about and all that we all should be concerned about is the substance. And if the substance isn't there, why bother? I am interested in the extent of substance I have to work with. If substance is very thin, then I don't have much to work with. The same is true of all of us in our various fields of responsibility. If we don't have much to work with, it may seem that it is excusable for us to be frustrated. But if we accept that excuse we are accepting the fact of our own failure. There is no necessity to be frustrated; only if we choose it.
So the government of our collective world of responsibility is dependent upon the extent to which we are handling effectively our individual worlds of responsibility, the ones that are right next to us, the ones which require our administration day by day. I have something of an overall view of the extent of government that must put in an appearance and consequently I am somewhat appalled (but not frustrated) in observing how ineffective and childish so much of the handling of the personal government of the individual world is. And I look at that and say, “My heavens. If that was transferred to the greater world, God help the world!” I am sure that you are aware of these things in the behavior of others. But we need to have it a little closer to home than that—to make sure that spiritual authority is being exercised in one's present world exactly the way it is; and we're not trying to impose something on everybody to make it conform to some bright concept that we may have. We are quite willing to accept the world the way it is, to provide the authority of spiritual expression in it, to handle it intelligently, and to let the chips fall where they may! We don't know what is going to come out of it.
The new world is born out of the old. The substance of the new world is the substance that was present in the old. We're not going to receive a downpour of substance from some other planet so that we are able to have a new world. The substance is already here, obviously; nothing wrong with the substance, whether we are thinking of it in terms of spiritual substance, mental substance, the substance of spiritual expression, or the substance which is available at each vibrational level of this Whole Holy World. Now the substance at the higher vibrational levels has been pretty thin in human experience, but it is that substance that allows the fire of transformation to reach the substance of the lower vibrational levels, which ultimately includes the physical level. We are concerned, then, with the generation of the essential substance, first of all of connection, rising up to the higher vibrational levels so that we may be in position to exercise the essential authority at the lower vibrational levels. “I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” At a certain point in the story of Job there was a facility available on earth by which these words could be spoken. Of course we do not see it merely in terms of those particular words, but we see the spirit that is being conveyed. Here is spiritual authority. Here is government. “I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” No more freedom insofar as human nature is concerned.
As we well recognize, human nature doesn't like that and is going to battle to the last drop of its existence. But our concern is to be in position collectively to provide the essential government which will encompass the whole world. And we provide that essential government for the whole world because we have individually exercised the authority in our own individual worlds. Exercising that authority is not done in human nature ways. While we see this authority and there is going to be response, the way that is brought to bear is not an imposition. It is simply that regardless of what the circumstance is, whether it conforms with our expectations or not, we are going to handle it rightly with the authority of spiritual expression. We deal with the things that come up on this basis. We're not looking around to find someone to clobber. Those who resist spiritual expression will clobber themselves; we don't need to clobber them. You have clobbered yourselves, I'm sure, in times past. Probably on the occasion you thought it was someone else doing it. But no one clobbers you—you clobber yourself, on the basis of the way that you are handling the particular circumstance. What is your attitude towards it? This will depend a great deal on your sense of stature.
Most human beings feel themselves to be so miniscule. Everything is greater than they are. They're constantly fighting for survival against all these hostile, overwhelming forces—forces of evil, in their view. It has been so in our view too. What is our stature then? Until we consciously become aware of the fact that we're much bigger than our circumstances, we will not have the right attitude toward our circumstances. We will always tend to be under the circumstances. Well, that's government by the circumstances—of us. But we are there to offer the government, and if we offer it in spiritual expression, the substance that is present in that world has no alternative but to respond. It was created to do that.
Now human nature has come into the picture, it's true. And it's all around, frantically endeavoring to hold this substance in whatever structures it is presently composing. There are those who wish to sustain the status quo, and in various ways everybody wants to sustain a certain status quo. Even when it comes to matters of revolution and so on, this is so; it's only a transfer of substance from one status quo to another. That's all that happens; nothing has been achieved whatsoever in the true sense. So it isn't a matter of getting into a battle in that regard. We know very well that human nature is fighting for its existence, so to speak. Satan has been cast into the earth and he's struggling to keep the substance which is present in what has been his domain, in the structures where it is—including the structures of human forms, because human nature is present in each individual human form, and there is an endeavor to try to keep it in whatever the structure may be, even if it's a very distorted structure. We are concerned that the substance should be transformed and provide the means by which the emerging forms according to the true design of spirit may appear. It's the same substance. There is some purification of this substance needed. It is needed certainly as this substance relates to what is present in human forms. There's a great deal more substance in the world than is present in human forms, but what is present in human forms needs to be purified at each level of substance. The final purification relates to the flesh body, which human beings try to project out as though it was the first thing that needed to be dealt with. Well, it's not the first thing that needs to be dealt with except occasionally when there is an emergency, so that something can remain in form and continue the process that is needed.
There is this transformation to occur, a purifying of substance at each level, so that it may be available for spirit to create the true forms—the new heaven and the new earth. But it's the same substance. This requires that we operate on the basis of spiritual expression so that we are never stymied by the antics of human nature in its endeavor to hold this substance in rigid structured forms of its own making. We see this happening, and it may be successful for a while—things hold together for a little. We see things beginning to crumble a little more all the time, but here is human nature on hand, desperately clutching its familiar structures; and in clutching those structures it holds on to the substance which, when there is spiritual expression brought to bear in relationship to it, is seeking to get out of those structures. So obviously there's going to be a state of conflict and confusion within the structures, whatever they may be, whether they are the collective structures that human beings have made on earth or whether they are merely individual human bodies. If the individual is subject to human nature he is trying desperately to hold on to that, whereas the substance is seeking to move into the new design, whether it be these collective patterns within the present world or whether it be the individual human bodies. The substance of our own bodies now is delighted to move into, to fill out in form, the new vibrational design that is coming into the picture by reason of spiritual expression.
But we're not thinking of this in terms of our own bodies. We are thinking of this in terms of the larger body and of the field of responsibility which is immediately around us. Here the substance that is present in our fields of responsibility, no matter who is doing what, is quite willing, quite ready, to conform to the design which we provide in our spiritual expression of living. And that will create stresses and strains in our environment, certainly. Those who complain about the state of affairs in their environment: that this person, that person, is not behaving the way they should, are exhibiting a lack of faith or trust in the Divine Design; a lack of trust in spiritual expression, in the creative power of God brought to bear in the situation by reason of one's own expression. And it's certainly not brought to bear if one is not accepting things as they are, if one's complaining about them, objecting to them. But the very moment there is an openness in this regard, and what is there is received, and one's expression is based in what one knows spiritually speaking—and no one here can say that they don't know; we all know—so that when it is brought to bear, there is the essence of the design which will take form as the substance moves in the creative cycles and becomes available to fill it out. No one is going to be able to say when it is going to become available or how it is going to become available, but there is an assurance that it is not only going to become available, but is becoming available now. And whatever begins to move on this basis is part of the movement of the substance to conform with the new design. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. It's not a matter of saying “Well, now I'm going to make the salvation of the Lord come.” How? Stand still and see it, because it's coming in your own spiritual expression. You don't have to manipulate things to get them in order. You wouldn't know how to get them in order on that basis anyhow.
Here we are handling our little individual worlds—and if we have any stature at all surely we can do that much! If we see the insignificance of these little worlds which are present with us now, relative to that greater world for which we are responsible, and we know that we're going to have to have the stature to handle that—well this is duck soup, isn't it. It's nothing. Absolutely nothing. And yet what a big fuss and turmoil human beings have made out of it all. Oh, such big things! Such tremendous troubles and problems and all these difficulties. Isn't it awful what we have to put up with! Snap of the fingers! Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we find it to be so when we handle it in spiritual expression. And when we are faithful in a few things then we are capable of ruling over many things. The Lord's not holding anything back. He'll give us all we can handle. But let us learn to handle what He's already given us before we expect more. I've heard various ones at various times say “Well, I think I have a greater capacity to handle more. When am I going to be allowed to do this?” No one's stopping that person, at all, ever. But what are they going to handle? Some imaginary world out there, the world of their expectations? Or the actual world right where they are? And how balky people tend to be in that regard. Oh, they're so great and big, they have tremendous stature when it comes to that great world out there, but they're little pygmies, hardly discernible, in the world where they now are.
So we encompass our worlds and we find ourselves in position to do it. There never has been any reason why we shouldn’t do it—only reasons that we ourselves have been busy thinking up. So when we do that we begin to have some real substance—substance which gives us stature and which becomes the substance of action in a larger sense, in this collective sense. How much substance of action do we really have? How much substance of action do you individually have in the handling of your individual worlds? The whole is found to be greater than the sum of the parts. In this sense we discover that what seems to be so mathematically speaking is not necessarily so. Two and two do not necessarily make only four.
I am thankful that there has been an increasing generation of the substance of connection—substance of action goes with it, because that's a spill‑over from the substance of connection. The cup runs over. But it is in the field of our action, of our handling of our affairs, momentarily, that the reality of spiritual government begins to emerge. And as we do this we suddenly begin to find here is the government in our hands collectively. And it encompasses, includes, far more than we had deemed possible even in our imagination. The actual thing is obviously a lot more substantial than the imaginary thing. So we find the actual thing may begin to emerge into our experience because our spiritual expression engenders response—the substance is coming one way or another. There are some human beings who are willing that the substance of their bodies should come along, for instance. And there are those who are not so willing but the substance of their bodies is going to come along—maybe not in that form, but one way or another it's going to come along. We find so much substance of all kinds beyond human bodies which offers itself. And there are those human beings who bring substance without knowing what they're doing. In fact, the vast majority of response is unconscious. It is a very little pinnacle that comes out in consciousness. If there is that pinnacle coming out in consciousness, yours and others, it is because there is vastly more of the mountain underneath. The mountain can't have a crest unless there's a mountain. So the response—what is needful is there and is coming—it's coming and will be made available to us just to the extent that we are capable of handling it, just to the extent of our stature.
Let us concern ourselves that our stature should be constantly expanding in its inclusiveness. It certainly isn't expanding, rather it's shrinking, if we object to the things that come to us. We're saying, “No, no, no, I can't stand anymore. I've got enough now. This little piece here is quite enough for me.” Would we ever get anything done on that basis? Of course not. We handle what is present and we let our encompassment expand because our stature expands and we acknowledge the fact of our stature; we don't keep denying it. We don't deny the Lord. And so here we are, continuing in our cycles of generation, that our cycles of generation may be perfect. Let us be big enough to handle our circumstances. The Lord has not reduced our stature. If it has been reduced we did it.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
