Heavenly Flesh
Martin Cecil May 2, 1980 p.m.
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” These were the words which took form by reason of the spirit of God, and the command emanates from the spirit of God. In the material sense there is obedience to spirit, absolute obedience. Obviously only when there is could what was coming forth in spiritual action be clear in expression, materially speaking. If we can doctor it a little in the material sense then it is no longer the clear evidence of the spirit of God in action. So there is the necessity of material obedience to the spiritual command. The right of free choice in the material sense is rightly removed. We have reached a point where there has been an increasing trust that the action of spirit is right. As this obedience comes we find ourselves associated with the spirit. We move out of association with the material self that we have known, out of subjection to that, into a new wakefulness.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. I am sure you all agree. How do you know? The kingdom of heaven is no less real than the kingdom of earth which we have known. We could say that the kingdom of earth that we have known is far less real than the kingdom of heaven. We say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand because it is actually here. The kingdom of heaven is part of our dimensional world. The substance of the kingdom of heaven is of such a vibrational quality—a fine quality—that it permeates the kingdom of earth. We claim to know that heaven and earth are one. The earth is interpenetrated by heaven. There is in fact no actual separation.
Our experience has been that of the material flesh. Because we have flesh bodies, and the consciousness that goes with that flesh body, we are aware of the kingdom of earth. We bump into things. Material substance is there. We only know it is there because we have a flesh body that is of a like vibrational quality to the substance which composes the kingdom of earth. We become very sure that we inhabit the kingdom of earth simply because there is this flesh entity on hand which is a part of the kingdom of earth. We are substantial in the earthly sense. Our flesh bodies make it so. It is not only a matter of a flesh body. There is something more to our experience than a flesh body. There is the factor of consciousness related to that flesh body, so that there is a flesh person on hand in a material world, and we are familiar with this world.
Because there is little or no consciousness of the kingdom of heaven, a world of finer substance, we have attempted to live in the kingdom of earth as though it were complete in itself. This is common to human beings everywhere. And it has seemed that’s about all we could do. But the kingdom of heaven is at hand—it’s here. It is already substantial at its own level. It is composed of fine substance, which takes a variety of forms of a different nature because it is a different level. How aware are we of the fact that we are present in the kingdom of heaven? [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-heaven-of-this-earth-is-city-in-star.html] This is true of everybody on the face of the earth. Whether anyone likes it or not—it doesn’t make much difference to most—everyone is present in the kingdom of heaven already, but we have not been substantial people at that level.
We could recognize that we are almost ghostly at that level. We just walk through these forms without realizing that there’s anything there. This substance doesn’t impress us in the way that physical substance does. If you bump into the door at night, you know it; there is whatever is similar in the kingdom of heaven, but we don’t bump into it; we simply walk through it. The only way by which anyone can become aware of the kingdom of heaven is to be a substantial person at that level—to have heavenly flesh. We already have earthly flesh and we know about the kingdom of earth, but we haven’t had very much heavenly flesh and consequently the kingdom of heaven has escaped us; not that it went away anywhere, not that it is being withheld by some arbitrary God, but merely because we have not allowed our own heavenly flesh to permit us to be present, consciously present, at the level of heavenly form.
Let me assure you that I am not talking about some spiritualistic realm where human beings stumble around on occasion. That’s all part of the kingdom of earth. There are various levels of substance within the range of the kingdom of earth. All these levels are coarser than the substance which is present in the kingdom of heaven. To become aware of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is here we must become substantial people with heavenly flesh at the level where the heavenly state is. While the heaven may not have been seen as being directly here, it has been thought of in terms of clouds perhaps, because it seems insubstantial. The substance of that kingdom is much finer than the coarse substance of earth. So if we are not incarnate, so to speak, in a heavenly flesh body at that level we don’t know anything about it. But sitting here this evening we may have a certain awareness, to the extent that there has been a generation of heavenly substance, that there is more here than the kingdom of earth. The kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand and may come into the experience of human beings when they are present where the kingdom of heaven is. So there is this continuing necessity for the generation of the substance of heavenly flesh if we are to become substantial people capable of operating in the kingdom of heaven relative to the substance which is already there.
We don’t have to make the kingdom of heaven be. It is, and it is well provided with substance. But it has been underpopulated, because there are few if any people on earth with physical flesh who also have an adequate quota of heavenly flesh and therefore are capable of bumping into, I suppose you could put it that way, the forms that are present in the kingdom of heaven. Of course we’re not interested, really, in bumping into these things but we need to be able to navigate properly. Of course we apparently don’t need to navigate at the moment, because we do not have a heavenly flesh body which might bump into the fine substance of the forms in the kingdom of heaven. But having that fine substance, in whatever measure, we become aware of a world besides the world that we have known.
When people become interested in spiritual things, and this is interpreted in religious ways, what is called prayer becomes quite a prominent feature. Usually when people do move into this field they close their eyes; in other words, they are shutting out the material world, or making the attempt at least. Of course the trouble is that behind the eyes there is still a consciousness which is part of the material world, and a person in such case will very often find himself assailed by all kinds of mental ghosts, mental forms. Sometimes there were those who thought it might be efficacious to go into what they would term a silence; but it wasn’t very quiet, because there were so many mental forms on the prowl which inserted themselves into consciousness and the person who was attempting to experience this deep meditation would get distracted. But there is something right about closing the eyes, in the sense that there is the necessity of becoming aware of what is present in the kingdom of heaven, having the substance to become aware of it, without distraction from the kingdom of earth. This would seem to be necessary; otherwise the kingdom of earth really blots everything else out. It’s so raucous and we are so accustomed to being involved with it.
We have recognized that there is and has been a veil present in the consciousness of human beings which has maintained their awareness of the kingdom of earth as an isolated place. It may be seen that there is a relationship between this material earth and other material bodies in the solar system or further afield in the universe, but the kingdom of heaven has been conspicuous by its absence in human consciousness. Now we begin to understand why: there was substance for a person to begin to contact, touch, and navigate in the kingdom of heaven. The first necessity then was to generate the essential heavenly flesh—spiritual substance, pneumaplasm—at a certain fine level which would allow the veil of separation to be dissolved or transcended.
Again, I would emphasize the fact that here this evening we are aware of being in the kingdom of earth—maybe the pews get a little hard or something—but just as surely present as the kingdom of earth, which forces itself upon our attention in various ways, there is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom comes when there are people who become aware of the truth of the matter. We see that it’s merely coming into the awareness of those concerned.
The kingdom of earth has occupied the total attention of human beings. The only seeming contact there has been with the kingdom of heaven has been through imagination. Perhaps there was also some actual sensing of the not so coarse levels that are present in the kingdom of earth. This is how many people have got trapped into the spiritualistic field, imagining that this at last was the kingdom of heaven; but still, they had the same thoughts and the same ideas and the same form even, in this particular realm which is part of the kingdom of earth. Nothing is gained by fiddling around there, any more than anything is gained by fiddling around in the material world the way most people know it. Of course this is undertaken with enthusiasm by many but it doesn’t get anyone anywhere.
Our concern is with the kingdom of heaven and with the experience of being a substantial person there. We know something about being a substantial person in the kingdom of earth. We have a sense of self in that way, and we have that because we have a flesh body here. We have eyes and we can see what is going on around us; we hear, and all the rest. We are connected up very closely with the kingdom of earth and we have a sense of self because of all this. We don’t have much of a sense of self in the kingdom of heaven, and we see now that it is because we haven’t had an adequate body of heavenly flesh to discern what is present in the kingdom of heaven. When that discerning begins to become a fact then we begin to have a sense of heavenly self; we begin to sense that our reality centers in spirit, and we are approaching closer to the place of spirit.
The heavenly levels in this dimensional world are the connecting levels between the undimensional world of spirit and the dimensional world of material things. Here is the realm of connection, which has been excluded from human experience, so that people could only speculate as to the reality of God, for instance. It’s only in recent times that the coarse substance has become so thick that human beings in many cases have decided that there isn’t any such thing as God. They have excluded themselves from any experience which would bring conviction. So we are concerned to let this connecting link be reestablished between God in the undimensional sense and the material world in the dimensional sense. This connection is made by reason of the reality of heaven or, as we are looking at it now, the kingdom of heaven.
We may call it a kingdom because control is operative there, the control of spirit. No human being can experience what it is that is present in the kingdom of heaven without accepting the control of spirit. The closer one comes to undimensional God the more experience there must be of the dominion and the control of the spirit of God. Here in this material world the spirit of God is very faint. The coarse substance doesn’t transmit the Word of God very clearly and most human beings don’t hear it. It’s a very deadening substance, so that the sound which reverberates in the kingdom of heaven, by reason of the action of spirit there, becomes fainter and fainter as it moves out into the coarse realms where human beings are. It has to come through the veil, which is the impure human heart—the heart, the emotional realm of human beings which is cluttered up with so much stuff. Well that’s all part of the material world, and we are trapped in the material world until there begins to be the generation of a finer substance in our living experience. That finer substance is the heavenly flesh which gives us shape and form and meaning in the kingdom of heaven. We cannot have shape and form and meaning without having a sense of identity that goes with it.
As this sense of identity becomes stronger the sense of identity that we had known in the material way becomes weaker. We need at least as much heavenly flesh as we have earthly flesh. There couldn’t be any sort of balance otherwise. But as there is the heavenly flesh, and the sense of heavenly identity, then the material world recedes into a secondary place relative to the spiritual world and we dwell in the kingdom of heaven on earth. The kingdom of heaven has always been on earth but lacking inhabitants. Now there may begin to be inhabitants in that kingdom, dwelling in this Secret Place of the Most High, abiding under the Shadow of the Undimensional Almighty
I am sure you would readily acknowledge that dwelling in the kingdom of heaven is not all that familiar to you. In fact as yet the kingdom of earth is largely dominant, because your sense of identity is there. If your sense of identity increases in the kingdom of heaven you are not so afraid of losing it in the kingdom of earth. Most people are deadly afraid of that. They are afraid of death, in other words. If that identity is all one has, well I suppose one might argue that it’s quite a valid thing that one should be afraid of death. But if there is a sense of identity in the kingdom of heaven then the sense of identity that has been known in the kingdom of earth becomes recessive and not all that important. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/worship-in-spirit-and-in-truth-uranda.html] When this is so, obviously things are seen in a totally new light. Most of human function in the kingdom of earth is based in self-preservation, survival as a seeming entity in the kingdom of earth. Well one may survive for a while. Some survive a little longer than others, but survival is not permanent on that basis, is it?
It is in a person’s self-interest that there should be an increased experience of the state of self in the kingdom of heaven, where moth and rust do not carry everything away as they do in the earth and where it is impossible for thieves to break through and steal. No one can get into the kingdom of heaven; there is an impenetrable veil. But one may, in the quality of one’s living, generate the substance which provides the spiritual flesh, so that one may be present in the kingdom of heaven in the substantial sense and not merely be a ghost flitting through, who is unaware of what is there and so has to conjure up ideas in imagination.
The kingdom of heaven is real and may be known to be real when we dwell there; but we don’t dwell there as human ghosts; we dwell there, if we do, as substantial people. And this level of experience becomes dominant. It is of primary importance, because we are well aware that the kingdom of earth is governed out of the kingdom of heaven. So the kingdom of earth can be brought again to order and to beauty, because there are those present in the kingdom of heaven who are also present in the kingdom of earth and provide the dominion by which this occurs.
I am not suggesting that anyone speculate as to how present he or she is in the kingdom of heaven now. If there is a need for speculation, well I would say that you are not there. It must become the experienced fact, and it will only do so as one begins to be really consistent in the matter, so that one isn’t dodging in and out. There are various qualities which characterize a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. We are aware of some of those qualities. It is not a matter of trying to acquire such qualities while dwelling in the kingdom of earth. There are many people who have attempted to do this, and perhaps they have improved their kingdom of earth image but they didn’t really experience the character of the one who dwells in the kingdom of heaven. It was, in some respects, phony; it was a human invention. But the character is awaiting the flesh.
In the human sense, whether you knew it or not, you had a heavenly character before you were born into the flesh of the material world. You have subsequently developed an earthly character and an earthly sense of self. You couldn’t have done this, it wouldn’t have happened, if you did not have a flesh body and a means of acquainting yourself with the kingdom of earth. This same principle applies to the one who rightly dwells in the kingdom of heaven. You cannot know yourself in the kingdom of heaven if you are not there, and you can’t be there, in any meaningful sense at least, in any conscious sense—and incidentally, subconscious sense too—without the flesh body of spiritual substance out of which is generated the consciousness which makes you aware of yourself in the kingdom of heaven. It is really rather obvious, I would say, once one has the basic understanding of what factors are involved. You have been in position to follow out these implications just as well as I have. We become aware together of the reality of the kingdom of heaven to the extent that we put in an appearance there.
One of the more or less obvious characteristics of the kingdom of heaven is that of friendship. Those who dwell in the kingdom of heaven are friends. They don’t have to cultivate friendship. It is a natural condition of the state. We find ourselves discovering the reality of friendship, and the reality of friendship does not necessarily conform very much with the human concept of friendship in the kingdom of earth. The human concept of friendship in the kingdom of earth has been based in the character of those who were simply citizens of the kingdom of earth. They had their preferences and their likes and their dislikes, and their feelings of rapport between each other, on the basis of what was present in the kingdom of earth. And, by the way, most of what human beings do experience of, “Well I felt something with this person,” is merely feeling factors that are present solely in the kingdom of earth. There are various patterns of relationship that get established in the kingdom of earth that have little if anything to do with the kingdom of heaven. One couldn’t tell as long as one was simply an inhabitant of the kingdom of earth. You can only begin to tell when you have the experience of dwelling in the kingdom of heaven. Then you find that things are as they should be there.
What was it that the Master said, no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven? Well there is no need, because the natural state of association is already there. Nobody knows it’s there until they land up there with spiritual flesh bodies. Then you find out. Of course this was what was being said when it was indicated, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” You land up as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, where friendship is the norm. This is not to say that all who dwell in the kingdom of heaven are buddy-buddy. There are simply the right associations of friendship, and there are many. It would be very dull if they were all the same, wouldn’t it?
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you,” whatsoever the spirit of God brings into play in the kingdom of heaven relative to what is necessary in the kingdom of earth. Then the kingdom of earth comes under the dominion of the kingdom of heaven, and the arbiters of that dominion were called Man, in the beginning. Man was to have dominion, because it was natural for him to be in the kingdom of heaven, natural for him to experience the heavenly identity which centers in the reality of spirit. The true identity is undimensional. It only comes out into earthly experience through the kingdom of heaven. We’ve been concerned to let this happen, to let the kingdom come on earth now, because we, amongst others, reach a point where we actually dwell there; but we dwell here too. It doesn’t mean we’ve escaped from the earth; we are still here. And we become very much aware that there is no separation between heaven and earth. The fine substance of our heavenly experience is present and permeates the flesh body of our earthly experience.
True spirituality does not detract from earthly effectiveness. You can discern true spirituality very largely on this basis. Many people who are seeking to add spirituality to the earthly state they are experiencing drift off into a never-never land and become very inept in the kingdom of earth. But if one dwells in the kingdom of heaven one automatically is very, what is it, ept in the kingdom of earth; one is effective. It brings things together, and as there are those who are in position to let this happen the whole world changes. Once more the dominion of God is present relative to the kingdom of earth, because man is present again to let it be so, and immediately something begins to happen in the kingdom of earth. Well, it is already happening.
We see it happening, and a lot of what we see seems to be destructive and disintegrative. We realize that this must be so because so much of the substance of earth has been retained in forms that do not reflect the true forms of the kingdom of heaven. Therefore when the kingdom of heaven begins to put in an appearance because there are those present who let it be, then the substance that was in the false forms automatically begins to free itself from the false forms so that it may be included, at whatever level, relative to the true forms which originate in the kingdom of heaven. So there is bound to be the destructive aspect, as we well know, but it frees up the substance so that it may begin to take shape in the way that it should on the basis of what is present in the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of earth then is a reflection of the kingdom of heaven, and the Garden of Eden, the Garden of the Earth, is once more a material reality on earth. It has always been a reality at the level of the fine vibrational substance. It was never taken away; it has always been there. All that happened was that human beings took themselves away from it. Now we are concerned to let it be experienced again, to the Glory of God, and we share this most wonderful responsibility. But I would emphasize the point that there needs to be a deliberate concern, not only for the quality of living which allows the generation of heavenly flesh but to let the heavenly consciousness which then results become specific in one’s own experience, to discern what is actually present with us now, so that we stop stumbling around in the dark.
By the way, the qualities that are present in the kingdom of heaven are naturally experienced by those who dwell there. So you know very well that if a person is in a state of complaint, for instance, he doesn’t know anything about the kingdom of heaven—not dwelling there. It is quite possible, and indeed natural, to dwell in the kingdom of heaven now and to experience what it means to dwell there, what the state is. I used one word to indicate something that characterizes that state, namely friendship. If you are at odds with your neighbor, who also presumably is seeking to experience the kingdom of heaven, then you’re not in the kingdom of heaven, certainly. It’s very self-revealing, and if we are honest and look at our own experience, we know right away. Let us be honest in this regard and recognize that there is nothing to stop us from dwelling in the kingdom of heaven on earth now except our own intransigence, our own unwillingness in the material sense to let it happen. No, we’re going to drink the awful brew of the material state right down to the dregs! Are we? Why? What’s the point? Let us accept the opportunity to dwell in the kingdom of heaven now. Of course, in doing that, we accept the KING who dwells there and we experience what He meant when He said, in effect, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”
© emissaries of divine light
Bringing The Kingdom Into This Place
an excerpt
Martin Cecil April 13, 1980 a.m.
O Lord God Almighty, Thou only art holy. With one accord we have come into Thy sanctuary this morning in gratefulness of heart, that Thy spirit might flood this place because of us. Holy is Thy name, O Lord. Thy kingdom comes as we let Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. In this hour we proclaim the supreme blessing of Thy love and of Thy peace, in the Christ. Aum-en.
Righteousness is a word which may be used to describe the true state of man in the kingdom on earth. Righteousness cannot be known merely by thinking about it. No one can study himself into the kingdom. Only by an open and yielded heart can the state of righteousness be known. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Those who do not have a passionate longing for the experience of righteousness can never know it. Such shall not be filled with righteousness. The absence of righteousness is unrighteousness. This is the state that human beings everywhere have known in the kingdom of earth, separate in experience from the kingdom of heaven. Righteousness can alone be known by those in whom this one desire is supreme; dwarfing, even excluding, all else. Hungering and thirsting is a way of describing this passionate longing. If a person does not hunger and thirst, why not?
It has been stated, “I shall not want.” There are those who have seen this statement simply as a statement, so that the word “want” has been incorporated into the vocabulary as a no-no. We are not concerned with words as such but with the truth that is conveyed by them. I have letters from people from time to time in which statements are made—perhaps it might be said, “I know I shouldn’t want,” but a person writing that is usually just playing with words. Because the word “want”, as it is usually experienced by human beings on earth, is an indication of reversed polarity, this does not deny the necessity of hungering and thirsting after righteousness; and this experience could be described by using the word want.
Surely a righteous attitude would be, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” But what is the nature and the quality of that life? Most human beings want life that they may squander it upon their own desires. It is a matter of letting life have us. If the attempt is made to get life, to squander it on human desires, we lose life; it just drains away for no purpose. The real quality of life is of love and of truth. When love and truth take hold of us, then we live. The trouble has been that we haven’t experienced the reality of that life, principally because we have wanted to squander it upon our own desires, in the fulfilment of our own wants in the human sense. Righteousness is characterized by life, proclaiming and revealing the truth of love.
But what if we do not really hunger and thirst for righteousness? If we do not feel ourselves to be starving for lack of righteousness, why would this be the case? Obviously because our longings and our desires are in another direction; we are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness but we are hungering and thirsting after something else. There is just so much human capacity to hunger and thirst. If this is directed in the broad way of human experience on earth, then we hunger and thirst after unrighteousness. As long as we insist upon hungering and thirsting in this way we will not hunger and thirst after righteousness and we will certainly not be filled with righteousness. It is all very simple. It works the way we choose—but we choose—and where there is hungering and thirsting after unrighteousness, to that extent there is no hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Many people would like to have righteousness if it agrees somehow with their unrighteousness. But it doesn’t. We can only hunger and thirst after righteousness the way it is—only then may we be filled with the reality. Only then may we be genuine.
Righteousness—the state known in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
We are aware mentally speaking, that we should bring the kingdom into the earth. “Thy kingdom come.” Day by day, moment by moment, we find ourselves in certain places. We find ourselves in this place in this hour. When you entered into this Chapel were you conscious of bringing the kingdom into this place? There might be a more natural experience of this when coming into the Chapel—after all, we are anticipating sharing the creative expression of spirit while we are here; therefore we have the responsibility as individuals of conveying that spirit into this place. When you come through the door and behold the Dome Chapel before you, do you pause for a moment and let your peace come upon this place, let the kingdom enfold the building and all who may be present in it? The earth is the Lord’s. As His emissaries we bring His kingdom to the place where we are, and we do it deliberately and consciously. We do not just hope that someone else is going to do it. Coming into this Chapel there should be, in righteousness, a longing for the place to be filled with the blessing of the Lord, with the wonder of His kingdom, with the enfoldment of His Presence. How? Because of you as an individual, because each of us does it; and there is never the attitude taken, “Well that’s not my responsibility, someone else will do it. When Martin comes in he’ll stand behind the lectern, then he’ll do it.”
Perhaps we can see the necessity of this as it relates to the Chapel. It should be absolutely obvious here, but the fact of the matter is that there are no places on the face of the earth more holy than any other places. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof—all of it! Yet I venture to say you do not always remember that this is so, when entering into the particular locations during the course of a day. We may see this from the standpoint of any location. The place of work, for instance, is rightly, from the standpoint of righteousness, a holy place. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. How aware are you of this? What is it that you bring into the place where you happen to be? Is there a consciousness of the fact that you represent the kingdom in that place? If you go into the office, if you go into the kitchen, if you go into the barnyard—wherever you go—if you go into your own room, anywhere where you put in an appearance, you as an individual are responsible for bringing the kingdom, for allowing what is present in your state of consciousness, in what is to find expression in that location, to be righteous. Is it the bringing of the kingdom? I venture to say that even right here on Sunrise Ranch it seldom has been. There may have been a sort of dim hope that things would go well today and that so-and-so wouldn’t behave like the cad he is; but this has nothing to do with the behavior of anyone but oneself.
It is clear enough that there are at least four billion human beings on earth who are not concerned in the least about bringing the kingdom into the location where they are. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/evidence-of-coming-of-kingdom.html] Are there even a dozen human beings on earth who really have a sense of deep spiritual responsibility for making very sure that when they come into a place, and while they remain in that place, the kingdom is there because they themselves have brought it? They are not depending upon anyone else to do it. It is only when there are those on earth who reveal this hungering and thirsting for righteousness that anything of creative value can happen at all. What is required is to establish the fact that the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, and we do it as individuals. We do it wherever we are, twenty-four hours a day.
In the earth there are many kingdoms. They could be summarized as the human kingdom, inhabited by mankind; there is the animal kingdom; there is the kingdom of vegetation; and there is the mineral kingdom. We have four kingdoms here. We are associated with one another in the human kingdom to a goodly degree; we move amongst our fellows. Coming into some particular location where human beings are, it is well that we should be immediately reminded that here is the place of the Lord. That makes it a holy place, and from the standpoint of our own approach, our own attitude, the way we behave, it is going to be kept a holy place.
I was recently reading in a magazine something with respect to the preparation of food in Japan. An approach was made to the preparation of the food in the recognition of holiness. It had perhaps deteriorated somewhat in the consciousness of those concerned to a necessary ritual, a ritual that required a good deal of expertise; but the very fact that the undertaking was approached as a ritual certainly would remind those concerned that here was something of vital importance, necessarily to be done rightly. Here is an illustration of something that has come down from the distant past. On such a basis there could be a meaningful approach made to the preparation of the food.
No matter what it is we undertake, this same attitude needs to prevail. I do not suggest that we have to develop some sort of a ritualistic approach, so that whenever we move from location to location we should bow and place our palms together, although this might be a good reminder if we did it, a good reminder of what is required of us. Then we might be more hesitant about running off at the mouth, for instance.
What is it that is going to find expression, righteousness or unrighteousness? We have the responsibility of righteousness, if we have caught the true vision at all, and it is not a game. Games are played when human beings feel like it. Most of human existence reflects this sort of state—no consistency, no adequate experience of discipline. When there is true hungering and thirsting for righteousness on the part of someone, then there is a complete yielded willingness to let body, mind and heart be brought under dominion, to let the fact of true discipline be experienced at these levels. These are not rightly the levels of control; these are the levels that are brought under control. We belong at the level of control, which is not the level of the body or the mind or the heart. The level of control is higher than that. We belong there.
So it is actually not a matter of saying, “Well I need some discipline.” No you don’t! You represent the discipline. You are the dominion. Man was created to be the evidence of God’s dominion on earth. So from that standpoint we don’t need to be disciplined. Human beings only take that attitude because they are identified in unrighteousness. They are identified with the body, with the mind, with the emotions, and are controlled in this fashion. So the view is that, if control is to be experienced, “I” need discipline. It isn’t a matter of remaining identified with the body, the mind and the emotions, and trying to apply discipline somehow from that level. It doesn’t work. It’s a terrible struggle and ends in failure every time.You wouldn’t be so foolish as to expect a wild horse to break itself to be a nice saddle pony. Well the same thing is true of the human body, mind, and emotions. They’re not going to discipline themselves. Human beings try that but it doesn’t work. The discipline comes from above. It is only when your body, your mind, your emotions, hunger and thirst after righteousness that the reality of that righteousness begins to put in an appearance. And that righteousness is the dominion. That righteousness determines what shall be done and what shall not be done.
Always in the initial stages of experience in the movement into the kingdom there is essential discipline—always. Most human beings, insofar as body, mind and emotions are concerned, are completely undisciplined, as though these capacities for expression were rightly free to do their own thing. You know, theoretically, that that is nonsense; and there has been the provision, through what has been offered in this ministry, the opportunity for all concerned to let their bodies, minds and emotions come under control. How many have taken advantage of that—really? Only when there is hungering and thirsting after righteousness do we begin to know the reality of dominion on earth. Accepting the responsibility of dominion we bring the kingdom into every location of our daily living. We do it deliberately.
Perhaps attitudes with respect to the realm of nature need to change. There are those who insist that it’s important that one should eat only food out of the kingdom of the vegetation because, for one thing, if you eat animal food you have to kill the animal to get the meat. What is the attitude here—that no animal should ever be killed? The point is not an arbitrary view that it’s all right to kill vegetation but it’s wrong to kill animals. Anyone who eats a carrot could be said to be destroying that carrot. Well it is a better thing for it if it is ingested into a human body. One might call that in question—it may have been better off as a carrot! The point is that there is a proper cycle of ascension occurring here. The point is that we need to bring the kingdom into every situation, even the situation where it may seem as though animal life is being destroyed to feed human beings. This obviously hasn’t been done. If you’ve ever been in a slaughterhouse you know that. It’s a very arbitrary thing which takes no sensibility into account at all. We have the opportunity of letting the kingdom be brought into any situation. If we were to examine living flesh more closely we might find that there are things at a more microscopic level being killed constantly without our awareness of it at all! The viewpoint of human beings is all twisted, because they are functioning at a level where they do not belong, and are afraid of death. They see death everywhere they look.
How about seeing life everywhere we look? There is life everywhere we look, and there is the true process of ascension. This true process of ascension raises substance from one level to another. Perhaps we could approach the necessity of killing a chicken, for instance, with a little more care and consideration, rather than saying, “I had better get it over with s soon as I can; I don’t like doing it too much.” Why not give a little more consideration to this form of life, offering this form of life an opportunity to ascend? There are those nowadays who have found it helpful to speak to their plants. Well it isn’t the speaking to the plant that is so important, although words may be helpful, but the attitude of the person giving consideration to plant life. Then there is plant life that is apparently going to be destroyed, presumably for the benefit of human beings: we harvest the crops. The question is, again, as to whether the plant life that is ingested by human beings is being blessed thereby. Or is it going to become a part of a human form which is governed by its own desires?—in which case nothing has been lifted up; everything is on its way down and out.
Human beings were supposed to be the final link in the upward chain so that all was to be offered to the Lord. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. Let us make sure that it is all offered to Him, and that if anything is ingested into our bodies it is being offered to Him and is not going to perpetuate a physical body with a mind and emotions that are unrighteous. Let all ascend before the throne of God because we live and because wherever we go we bring that connection. Then everything that is present in the immediate environment is given the opportunity of ascension. Clearly, everything that is present does not accept the opportunity of ascension. We would not anticipate that it will all go up, whoosh! It has been long polarized in unrighteousness. And even when the balance is restored there is a creative cycle; there is that which is ascending and there is that which is rightly descending. The human experience relates mostly to this descending process. There has been so little offered to the Lord.
But we are here. We know. We have the responsibility. We see it. And we have the opportunity in every moment, in every location, to bring the kingdom deliberately there; not because we’re imposing something on anybody but because it’s true of ourselves. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we find ourselves filled with righteousness. But if there isn’t that constant hungering and thirsting we’re not full of righteousness; we’re full of something else—we’re empty of righteousness and full of unrighteousness. Is it not possible for us to act intelligently, to move from here to there, to bring the kingdom deliberately with us, to offer blessing, to offer respect for what is present and willing to ascend? We seek for that. Obviously if we concentrate on all the things we have judged to be unrighteous we ourselves are unrighteous; we’re full of unrighteousness.
When you see everything as being so terrible around you, you justify yourself in that by saying, “Well it’s terrible out there.” But you’re full of unrighteousness. Full of it! Probably you can talk of little else because you’re so full of it! But it’s in you. Just as well we can be filled with righteousness when we hunger and thirst for it; but we will not hunger and thirst for it if we are still chasing after the things that are supposed to satisfy our bodies, our minds and our emotions. It’s not something that has been imposed in any way upon that person; it’s his own choice. All this flabby nonsense, which says it’s because of what other people are doing, should surely have been seen as being exactly that by now—flabby nonsense, and the flab is in the person who takes that attitude.
Come out of that state and be true to the truth, that there may be participation, whatever the environment may be, in bringing the kingdom there, that the ascension may be inspired and encouraged. When we do it of course we learn how to do it. You never learned how to do anything, even in the material sense, without doing it. You may have it all up here in your head but when you go to do whatever it is, you’re all thumbs, because you never did it. If, in this matter of righteousness, you find that you are a bit all thumbs, well that’s the way it is. Rejoice! That’s the way it is. Now you know, so you had better be doing a little more and gaining some dexterity in that field. We can all let it happen if we will.
It does happen when there is the reality of hungering and thirsting, so that nothing else at any time is more important than our own experience of righteousness in representation of the Lord in the particular location where we are. Whenever you come into any room, whenever you go outdoors, the kingdom must be brought by you into that place. If it isn’t, the kingdom doesn’t come. We can pray about it until we’re blue in the face, we can hope for it, but nothing happens. It only happens when we let it happen ourselves as individuals. And when we do it individually we do it collectively. The kingdom comes. The will of the Most High is done in earth as it is in heaven.
Most holy Lord God Almighty, we would represent Thee without equivocation. We would let it be in each moment, in each circumstance, in each place, that we may be faithful in revealing the fact and proclaiming it in our living, that the earth is Thine, and the fulness thereof. It is brought to Thee once more in manifest form as there are those who let it happen. O Lord, we would surely be counted among those who let it happen. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
Evidence of the Coming of the Kingdom
Uranda December 27, 1953 am
We come to the hour of our morning meditation on the last Sunday of the year 1953. This Christmas Season, just past, has heard many expressions from choir and pulpit with respect to the birth of the Christ Child, commemorating the coming of our LORD on earth. I would like to meditate on this theme with you this morning, and in preparation for that meditation let us have a moment of devotion.
Our Gracious LORD and Holy KING, while the peoples of the world remember Thy coming as a babe in a manger, we would consider Thy coming into the hearts and the lives of the children of men, that Thy Kingdom may come. We realize that, as the KING of the Kingdom came and walked among men, the next natural step is for the Kingdom of the KING to come, and to this end we remember that Thou didst teach men to pray: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed is Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven.” And as we, on this day so near the close of this year, forgive others in whatsoever way they may have trespassed against us, so would we open our hearts to receive Thy forgiveness, that we may be forgiven with respect to those things which were done yet should not have been done, those things which were felt and said which should not have been felt and said. Likewise, then, in extending forgiveness to others, we would receive Thy forgiveness with respect to those things which should have been done and were not, with respect to those things which should have been felt and said and yet were not, that we may receive Thy Kingdom into our hearts and minds and bodies, into our lives and circumstances, to the end that we may, in the new year that is at hand, reveal on earth the evidence that, “Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever.” Aum-en.
In our meditations, we have recognized the Gospel of our LORD as, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The world has long celebrated the coming of the KING, and has come to anticipate what is called His “second coming;” [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-pattern-of-his-appearinglight-of.html] but, by and large, the so-called Christian world has ignored the coming of His Kingdom, assuming that His Kingdom could not come, in fact, until He, in some mysterious fashion, should come again. Such an attitude suggests the belief that His first coming was not adequate to the establishment of His Kingdom on earth.
Many tender and sweet songs have been written in recognition of His birth in the form of the babe Jesus. The finer instincts in human hearts have been stirred by the thought of that babe in the manger, and the stories have been recounted with respect to the shepherds and the wise men. But the primary purpose of His coming has been largely ignored; for of what value is the coming of a KING if His Kingdom does not likewise come? Is it necessary that we, as human beings, steadfastly ignoring the message of His first coming, should require that He must come again before His Kingdom can be established among men? If His first coming cannot establish His Kingdom, what assurance have we that human beings would let any second coming establish His Kingdom?
The picture portrayed with respect to that second coming assumes that the matter will be taken out of the hands of men, and that He will arbitrarily impose His Kingdom, regardless of what human beings do, and in spite of them, not because of them. But such a concept places the load of responsibility on the KING and does not truly share that load of responsibility with the citizens of the Kingdom. A kingdom that is imposed upon unwilling peoples establishes a realm of dictatorship, of tyranny—and our KING has no intention of establishing a dictatorship or a realm of tyranny. The citizens of His Kingdom must willingly and eagerly accept the privilege of living in that Kingdom as citizens of it.
He came, and we know the story. The tender sentiments, the sweetness, the beauty, the vibrancy of Life, the wonder of Love, found in that outworking, is something from which human beings have largely separated themselves, and they have considered it only as they have celebrated, in memory, the event.
How shall His Kingdom come? We ourselves know, by our lives and our experiences, that something of the influence of His Kingdom has, most assuredly, extended into our lives. We have tasted of the reality of that Kingdom, and from what we have known, in actual, personal, experience, if we consider it without the obscuring veils of darkness which tend to arise from old world patterns, it has a peculiar and distinct character. That which we have experienced, be it ever so little, and though we know it to be inadequate as yet, has had, in its coming into our lives, exactly the same qualities which we find so richly portrayed in relationship to His birth; for we have found, to whatever degree we have yielded to His Kingdom and let it have meaning in our hearts and lives, that unspeakable sweetness, the delicacy and yet the overwhelming all-inclusive quality of Love. We have found in it a beauty which can transform even a stable in a manger into a Heavenly Place. We have recognized that regardless of external factors which may be pressing in round about, Heavenly Music as of an Angel's Song reached into our hearts.
While we were in the process of letting this Kingdom have real meaning, we found expressions of wisdom coming into the realm of our awareness—the wise men. And in this experience we have received rich gifts into our own lives—for it was indicated by our LORD Himself, when He walked among men, that as He had received, both from God and through channels on earth, the things of God, so likewise should we. He indicated that as He had received ill things at the hands of men which were not the gifts of God to Him, so might we also expect to receive certain ill things from the hands of men who were not under the control or dominion of God. But regardless of that which we might receive from men who were not under the dominion of God, He indicated that we should receive something from God.
Now the Master, as a babe, received certain gifts from God—gold and frankincense and myrrh are specifically mentioned—but He received these gifts from God through the wise men. They were the agents of God, making available to Him the gifts of God. He received responsive recognition from the shepherds, and in this response there was one of the gifts essential to a king—response—for he who is a king in name only, having no response, is not in fact a king. It is only as there is response to a king that there can be acknowledgment of a king, and only so can he express his kingly qualities and make them known within the scope of his kingdom.
As the KING came into the world, it was signified, by that very fact, that the world was included in His Kingdom. From His standpoint, according to the Divine Pattern, the world was included in His Kingdom; else the KING would not have come into the world, as a babe or by any other means. Regardless of appearances, in spite of all the ways in which human beings had spoiled the Kingdom through rebellion and traitorous conduct, this world was still, and is now, a part of His Kingdom. He did not go into someone else's kingdom to try to take someone else's kingdom to Himself. He came into the realm that belonged in His own Kingdom, that the fact might be made evident in the world.
Now that His coming is at a safe distance in the past—nineteen centuries or more—human beings feel quite free to celebrate that coming in the limited fashion that the world uses, as long as they can postpone the idea of the coming of His Kingdom to some fantastic future. But the world of men has never admitted that the world is, in fact, now, a part of His Kingdom. Human beings have consistently taken the attitude that this world is the kingdom of the devil, and that only by some fantastic means could this kingdom be taken away from the devil that it might become the Kingdom of our KING.
We remember the manner in which it is presented in Revelation: “And the kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” Now it does not say, “And this world has become the Kingdom of our LORD,” for this world has been the Kingdom of our LORD all the while, although human beings have not acted like it. The statement is, “The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” Once we accept the basic fact that this world is now, and always has been, contained in His Kingdom, regardless of the nature of function of the people living in the world, we can begin to be in position to recognize the true nature of that which He brought into the world when He came as a babe born in a manger. Only so can we begin to see that the evidence of the coming of the Kingdom was supposed to follow the evidence of the coming of the KING. The evidence of the coming of the Kingdom into manifestation, a revelation of the fact, was supposed to follow the evidence of the coming of the KING. But that evidence has not followed, though nineteen centuries have passed. Instead, when we look into the world we find evidence that the Will of God is not being done in millions of lives, that the real control, from the standpoint of that Heavenly Kingdom, has not been revealed on earth. There is chaos and fear, misery, suffering, disease, every sort of ill thing appearing to have control.
As a representative of that KING who walked among men so long ago, I am interested in having citizens in the Kingdom. I am interested in people, that they might share the manifestation of the evidence of that Kingdom. In fact, human beings are essential to that manifestation of the evidence of the fact of the Kingdom on earth. But my interest in people, as such, even so, is secondary—secondary to the fact of the KING and the fact of His Kingdom, whether it is as yet evident or not. The reality of the KING and the Kingdom is basic. The rest is incidental. As long as human beings imagine that the Kingdom, as such, is not a fact, they think that they must go through some kind of fantastic experience in order to bring that Kingdom on earth, which is not the truth of the matter at all. The Kingdom is here, and always has been here. It was never away from here.
This is not the whole Kingdom, but the Kingdom is here and always has been here. And, once we clearly see that basic truth, we can see that we do not have to go through some peculiar experience in order to get the Kingdom to come. Our concern is that the evidence of the Kingdom shall come into manifestation. “Thy Kingdom come” into manifestation. But the Kingdom already is, and it is already here. So as long as the human being is imagining that God's Kingdom does not extend to here, he feels that he must somehow make God's Kingdom extend to here; and then he imagines that everything will automatically change and be thus and so, which is not the case at all. The Kingdom is here, but there has been very little evidence of the fact. So our concern is with the coming of the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom itself is the evidence of the Presence of the KING. The kingdom itself is, in fact, the evidence of the presence of the KING. Human beings have been looking, in one way or another, for evidence of the presence of the KING without being concerned about revealing evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom, and it leads to all kinds of fantastic concepts and beliefs, longings and futile desires.
The Kingdom is the Evidence of the Presence of the KING of the Kingdom
So we need not be so concerned about making the evidence of the KING present, that it may be seen. We should be concerned about revealing the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom itself will reveal the evidence of the Presence of the KING. Once we accept the Kingdom as being here as a basic fact, the rest is really quite easy. But even here on Sunrise Ranch, in actual fact, the consciousness of the members of this Unit has not, as yet, properly adjusted, or become conditioned to, this basic truth, and the pattern of function has not been in harmony with that truth.
If we then would derive the greatest possible blessings from the Christmas Season now past for this year, and be prepared thereby for the greatest possible expression of service in the year that is at hand, we need, more than anything else, to become thoroughly conditioned to these basic truths, so that what we do and say, what we feel and express in various ways, shall in the new year conform to the Truth, and our lives shall give evidence of our conviction of the Truth.
In the coming of the KING nineteen centuries ago, in spite of the limitations that were present in the world, there was that which characterized His coming—all the sweetness, the beauty, the vibrancy of Life, the tender, and what we might call the magical, aspects of His birth and babyhood. He received these things from God through other human beings on earth. He received the opportunity of birth through His mother and His father. He received the essential care from His parents and others. He received the gifts of God's provision through the wise men. He received the significant gift of response from the shepherds and from others, from the lowly and from the great, as is necessary to a KING. Response from the great—the wise men; response from the lowly—the shepherds; portraying a response that was destined to be all-inclusive throughout the body of humanity. And in all of this there was an exquisite and beautiful simplicity, something clothed in the Spirit of Love and Truth and Life.
If we are to allow the coming of the evidence of the Kingdom, as those few then allowed the coming of the evidence of the KING, we must realize that the qualities which characterized the coming of the KING must likewise characterize the coming of the Kingdom. Human minds have tended to attribute to the Kingdom qualities which were not of the KING. Just as surely as it was important to the salvation of man for the KING of the Kingdom to come, so must the second step be taken, and the Kingdom of the KING must come into manifestation.
Now, the KING of the Kingdom was a reality, and had been through the thousands of years prior to His birth in the form of a babe on earth, but the evidence of the Presence of the KING had been lost to the consciousness of man. So, in actual fact, what do we see in that babe that grew to be the body of a man? What do we see? Simply the evidence of the Presence of the KING. The KING was a fact before, but the evidence of His Presence was not adequately recognized by human beings. Therefore, in His coming there was the evidence of the Presence of the KING so made manifest that humanity has had to acknowledge it, but the meaning of that evidence has not been adequately comprehended or grasped. Its significance has been limited because human beings have failed to comprehend the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and they have not taken any real steps toward providing the coming of the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom. They were going to be good, so that when they died they could go to Heaven; or they were going to be saved; or, “When Jesus comes, then everything will be all right”—a thousand and one concepts and ideas, but nothing actually done according to the Divine Pattern, nothing actually worked out.
So, if we accept the evidence of the Presence of the KING, as that evidence was made manifest nineteen centuries ago, then, to be consistent and to let that have any meaning, we must likewise accept our responsibility in letting the evidence of the coming of the Kingdom, or the Presence of the Kingdom, in fact, now, come. And if we can see this point clearly, and if it penetrates deeply into consciousness, so that it is not forgotten in any moment of time, so that it conditions everything we think and say and do, every attitude we express in life, then the new year shall have true meaning unto us. But, to whatever degree we fail to comprehend this and let it be a central conditioning factor in our lives, the new year will be meaningless unto us, filled with miseries, turmoils and difficulties, unnecessarily. There must be the coming of the Kingdom, the coming of the evidence of the Kingdom, the coming of the KING, the coming of the evidence of the KING, because, in actual fact, they who then lived did not see the KING except as His evidence was made manifest through the body that was called Jesus. The inner reality of the KING and the body were one, yes, but it was the evidence of the Presence of the KING shining through that body that made Him meaningful. And if we let the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom shine through us, we too will be meaningful.
He revealed amply, adequately, the evidence of the Presence of the KING. It is not our task to try to do what He did. We are delegated to doing the greater works—providing the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom, not just of the KING. He provided that, and if we look at His life we see the evidence of the Presence of the KING. If we let this be the centering of the conditioning factors in our lives through the new year, we shall accomplish something to the Glory of our KING; if not, then it will be of no avail. But, in this day and time, since He did reveal the evidence of His Presence as a KING, the evidence of His Presence as a KING must appear by reason of the evidence of the Presence of His Kingdom. That is our purpose here—and let it be clear in all that we do this coming year, that the increase of the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom, as revealed in and through and by our lives through this coming year, may Glorify the KING and be a blessing to all who will accept the evidence made manifest, the evidence of the Presence of the Kingdom of the KING.
Our Gracious, Holy KING, we do not seek further evidence of Thy Presence in the Kingdom, for we accept Thee as Thou art and yield to Thee, that Thy Will maybe done in earth as it is in Heaven. But, rather, would we seek, diligently, at all times and in all ways, to allow the manifestation of the evidence of the Presence of Thy Kingdom, that Thou mayest be revealed on earth through Thy Kingdom, and that all who will may become citizens of Thy Kingdom, knowing that Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
