Ye Have Not Chosen Me But I Have Chosen You

Ye  Have  Not  Chosen  Me   But  I  Have  Chosen  You

Martin Cecil   August 7, 1980    from  Assembly — Sunrise Ranch

The world cries out for a brightening, a genuine light, a genuine sensing of a genuine glory

We are a small company in a large space; however this gives us special opportunity to share something in the field of government particularly. I would like to read some verses from Ezekiel, Chapter forty-three.

“Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east:

“And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.

“And it was according to the appearance of the vision...

“And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.

“So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.”

The house of the Lord is here present in the flesh by reason of all of you who are gathered here within the house of the Lord of material substance. We call it the Dome Chapel. Because we have conscious understanding with spiritual perspective we are in position to assume our spiritual responsibility in this setting, the setting of the house of the Lord. After what has gone before, we have been brought to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east.

For you, particularly in this setting now, I am that gate. You are looking toward the east. I am the gate for you in a particular sense in this Assembly. I'm a gate for others also. But we have this special setting at the moment, at the very core of the Lord's ministry on earth. We are all present playing our respective roles—you as the house of the Lord and I as the gate, the gate which from your standpoint looketh toward the east, looketh toward what is coming—in this instance, what is coming through my words. What is of the spirit of God comes out of the east, comes out of the future or out of heaven, to take form now, to be translated more fully because all of you are present, and to shine round about.

How beautiful are the ways of the Lord, how simple, how easy. What is needful to make the right translation is always available if there is a willingness to let it be sufficiently resilient to do what is necessary. Because of the extent of the resiliency of all who are gathered here in this setting now this Assembly has taken shape and has been brought to focus, looking toward the east, in this moment. I am the door toward which you look, through which what comes out of the east, out of the future, down from God out of heaven, may take its initial form.

You are aware that both in this setting now and in a larger sense, I am that door. I didn’t choose to be that door, but was chosen to be that door. All I have done is to agree with the choice. The same is true of all of you. You didn’t choose to be here, but you were willing to agree with the choice. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” were the words of the One whom we love and serve, and we are here on earth to minister in His name.

This house within a house is holy. It is an initial form of the immovable mass, from which the irresistible force proceeds. In this holy setting we may together have a very vivid awareness of the immense spiritual responsibility that is ours in this moment. Our very geographical position in the midst of this Dome is surely evidence to us of the authority which we are here to carry. We surely know that it is not a little thing. Relative to what’s going on in the universe as a whole it isn't much—but in the eyes of the Lord, relative to this aspect of His creation, it is a large thing, and it is large to us. Our awareness of that largeness impresses us with a sense of holiness.

So we are together in this holy setting, a house within a house, and the gate opens toward the east, and what is present, ready to emerge out of the heaven, has opportunity to so emerge because we provide that opportunity. Obviously there would be no such opportunity if I wasn't here and if you weren't here. It requires each of us in our particular roles of responsibility to be in position to let the creative action of God be a reality now in this moment. A consciousness of the sacredness of what is here present now sustains a sense of deep humility, in the recognition that we are in this particular place at this particular time, in this particular configuration of people not on the basis of our own choosing and yet it is our own choice. We have been put here, we have been put together, for a reason, and our unified consciousness becomes increasingly aware of that reason.

“And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east” — the glory of life, the glory of the living God, not merely of a concept of glory, or of life, or of God, but the reality of the experience which naturally comes through the gate, out of the heaven, to be translated into expression as the sound of many waters, because of all of you particularly — “and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.”

We may have a sense of the shining now in this moment, in our own experience. As His voice sounds with the sound of many waters, that shining brightens the whole earth. There is indeed deep darkness upon the face of the earth, a need for brightening. Gloom and doom are much apparent in the awareness of people everywhere. Some may occupy themselves with their human affairs, blotting out that sound as far as possible. But if there is a pause in the frenetic activity, anyone will become aware of the doom and the gloom. The world cries out for a brightening, a genuine light, a genuine sensing of a genuine glory. This is part of our spiritual responsibility, in our genuineness, that there may be that glory and it may be sensed by those who are close enough to us to sense it—not close enough physically necessarily, but close enough vibrationally, close enough in the openness of their hearts. A sense of brightening. This provides a beginning consciousness of the fact that there must be somehow a point of genuine orientation.

Yesterday in our session, what the Lord built on the rock foundation was of such strength, such permanence, that the gates of hell could not prevail against it. It’s interesting that the plural is used here—gates. There are many gates toward which human beings look, as a rule with their backs to the east. Those gates all lead into the past and what is received through those gates comes out of the past. And this is the basis for human function on earth. The gates of hell prevail. There are many such gates when we are polarized in the past, polarized in earthly heredity. And we find coming to us through those gates influences of all kinds, which are inclined to take control in human living.

We are aware of these things and we have presumably turned to see the voice, turned toward the east, where there is only one gate. That gate, that one gate, may be found to have various aspects to it. I recall that there were supposed to be twelve gates into the holy city, but every gate was of a pearl, one pearl; there weren't a variety. Fundamentally all the gates, in this sense, are the same; just one gate. And what a person may see as the gate is not always the same. It could be said that you all rightly share in this one gate, so that what others see in you is the gate, the same pearl, the same pearl without price. You can’t buy yourself into the kingdom of heaven or out of purgatory.

One gate within this setting now—in this particular configuration, we have the representation of what is needful for the whole earth. My voice_, because of you, becomes the voice of many waters. Then that is the sounding of the tone on earth in expanded, differentiated, magnified expression. Sharing in this, in this moment, the glory of the Lord may fill the house where we are sitting, the house of flesh and the house of material substance beyond the flesh—the holy place. But the bounds of the holy place, which are apparent in this Dome, do not prevent the glory of the Lord from shining forth. It may prevent the defilement of the world from coming in. We have a responsibility in this regard, because if the defilement of the world cannot come into us, and we are responsible here in this setting, it cannot come into this Dome Chapel either. When there is the immovable mass, the gates of hell do not prevail. What would come in through those gates cannot get in.

But the gates are handy also, because something can get out—the glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord’s rebuke and reproof—rebuke to the self-centeredness prevalent in the world and reproof to all who remain subject to that self-centeredness. There is reproof offered when the glory of the Lord fills the house and shines round about. Nothing can enter in that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie—so that the glory of the Lord shines round about. We are responsible for that glory. It is the glory of life, our own life individually speaking and together. It offers rebuke and reproof, rebuke to what comes to us personally as individuals to be rebuked, and reproof is offered to the world because individually we have offered rebuke in our own circumstances and experiences. Then there is reproof that shines round about.

There are various aspects to reproof: of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. We bring the immovable mass, which provides the opportunity for right polarity to all. The wrong polarity, which is the state in the world of human beings now, is thereby reproved, because the right polarity is on hand. And of righteousness because in the glory of the Lord shining round about, life is revealed. What life is, is revealed. The truth of life is revealed. That is righteousness—the genuine article rather than the phony self-righteousness of human beings. And of judgment, because the dominion, the government, of God is present. There are many governments provided out of the gates of hell. We may let those gates be used to extend the government of God, the government of God relative to the governments of the world. This has effect both from the standpoint of such resistance as there may be to it by reason of those who are strongly polarized in the self-centered state, but also a yielding by reason of those who are sufficiently resilient and open to allow that polarity to begin to change. And that changes because of the reproof that is offered. So there are those who are uplifted and there are those who are cast down. The evidence of these things appears in the world, but we stand as the gate of the east, steadfast and strong.

“So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
“This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”

This house in which we now sit is set upon an hill. There is a beautiful evidence of life symbolized by the green that surrounds the Chapel, and which is plainly delineating a hill with the Chapel upon it. Here is a true symbol, and it is all holy. This symbol is first of all a symbol of this Assembly now in this instance, those of us who are here present in the house within a house. The larger house is holy because the house within the house is holy. And that of course is the responsibility of each one. “This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy.”

We may see this in terms of the symbol itself. To us, in our awareness of the truth of the matter, it is most holy. It is only known to be this because of the house within the house, at the moment this Assembly. The house within the house is larger than this Assembly, but this Assembly certainly brings the house within a house to focus within a house. And there is the gate toward which you looked in the east, and there is what is brought, by reason of that gate and by reason of its magnification, as the expression of many waters by all of you. We share this experience now in this hour, seeing beyond the forms of it to the reality of it, to the spiritual beauty which is in the heaven. Obviously none of this could possibly be known or experienced if it wasn't for what is present in form; but what is known and experienced is far more than the form.

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty … Let all the earth keep silence before Thee.” Let all mankind render to God the things that are His. Let all the tithes be brought into the storehouse, the tithes of love, of reverence, of awe, of substance at every level. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” The irresistible force, the creative power of the Christ, transforms and transmutes under His hand, by reason of His house restored on earth, within which the glory of His presence is known and from whence His glory shines round about.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Purification of the Connecting Substance of the Fourth Level

Heart  Substance

Purification  of  the  Connecting  Substance  of  the  Fourth  Level

Martin Cecil   July 31, 1979    from  Assembly — Sunrise Ranch

There is a form brought forth by spiritual expression—the body of the Archangel—rather an ethereal form in many ways thus far. This is not to say that there are not some physical bodies around, fairly solid apparently, but how much are those physical bodies really revealing the form of the body of the Archangel? There are over 4 billion human bodies around on earth and yet the body of the Arch­angel is not particularly made evident by reason of this fact. So it's quite possible to have a physical body and be a part of humanity and not reveal the body of the Archangel. There's something more to it merely than the fact that we have physical bodies and call ourselves Emissaries. 

The body of the Archangel is something more than that, something which is not discernible from the usual standpoint of the human nature approach. It may be sensed perhaps, but the body of the Archangel is intended to be something very easily discernible. There was no difficulty in recognizing the body of Jesus when He was on earth. There He was. Most did not recognize it as the body of the Son of God in that individual sense; nevertheless it was. And it was quite solid, as solid as anyone else's body. So it's not merely having physical bodies and calling ourselves Emissaries that achieves anything very much. It is the fact that there is a blending into the spirit of the Archangel in the collective sense, or the angelic spirit in the individual sense. And there is no possibility of blending into that spirit without the essential substance.

I spoke of this in terms of concentric spheres of substance, in order to awaken something more into experience. If we see this substance in terms of various dimensional levels, we also recognize the distinction between the dimensional levels of the earth and the dimensional levels of the heaven. It's all one substance but there is a vibrational transition between the coarser substance of the earth and the finer substance of the heaven. We also are aware of the part that the heart plays in the substance which connects heaven and earth. This connecting substance of the fourth level permits the blending of the heaven and the earth—it either permits that blending in one's experience or prevents it. We understand why this blending has been prevented and we see our responsibility in letting the changed operation of the heart permit the blending to occur. This is all in our experience, because it is the nature of the heart in us that tells the tale. It doesn't establish any­thing from the standpoint of God. The reality is real anyway, regardless of how we behave. But in our experience we don't know anything about it until we behave the way we were created to behave, and that requires a pure heart.

This matter of blending relates to union, doesn't it. Now the union of heaven and earth is made possible by reason of the fact that there is also union between the dimensional and the undimensional. There are two aspects of union here—these could be correlated with the words resurrection and ascension. There is a process of resurrection, in other words a transformation of earthly substance, the generation out of earthly substance of heavenly sub­stance. But then there is the transmutation of all this from the dimensional level into the undimensional, and that's something else—there are elements within this creative process of which pres­ently we have virtually no experience. Now, when there are such elements which need to be touched on so as to open a door, then it is important that we do not become involved in speculating about something that we don't know. We move into the unknown from the known; therefore there has to be the awareness that the unknown is there to move into. But let us await the time of movement. 

This requires the generation of substance and the clarifying of this connecting substance of the heart, so that heaven and earth may be one in our experience. If heaven and earth are one in our experience we recognize the dominance of heaven. The weight is in heaven. The treasure is in heaven. The earth is there but the treasure is in heaven. And the earth only has meaning by reason of the heaven. The heaven has meaning by reason of the earth but in a different way. There is rightly a blending between heaven and earth, between the substance above and the substance below. That blending is made possible by the substance in between. The substance, the heavenly substance, is essential to earthly understanding. If that substance isn't adequately there or if it cannot adequately be experienced at the earthly level because of the cloudiness of the veil in between, the heart in between, then it's impossible to know the truth. 

The sub­stance of blending is important—the clarity of heart. And when we speak of blending we're speaking of union and we're speaking of sex in rather a particular sense. It is impossible to approach an understanding of the reality indicated by the word sex without having the substance of blending clear the way it should be. Otherwise we are trapped below the veil and everything that is done will prove to be destructive in one way or another. 

Most people think of sex in terms of physical attraction. Of course we recognize that that's a very restricted view—or do we? Physical attraction is the least important element insofar as the reality of sex is concerned. And yet, generally speaking, this is what is emphasized in the consciousness of those who are considering becoming involved in sexual experience. It may be said to be wise that if there is physical attraction set it to one side, because even if there is something more than that, if the physical attraction dominates, the individual will likely never discover what more there is. It will be hidden and disintegrated by whatever works out at that physical level, so that later when that isn't dominant anymore, there will seem to be a blank, and that blank may not be a valid blank. In other words it is a blank that was produced by the wrong function in the initial stages of this physical attraction. Then that destroyed the spiritual substance that might otherwise have been present. Anyone who has assumed spiritual responsibility will have experienced physical attraction along the way, but if he is capable of assuming spiritual responsibility, that will have been set aside—it will not have been the dominant thing. It's not the important thing at all. 

True blending occurs within the individual to the extent that the heart is pure. That is the blending of heaven and earth. The blending of heaven and earth is also the blending of the dimensional person with the undimensional person, so that the angel then has what is necessary to be revealed in expression on earth to do the job that needs to be done. All this requires experience—Not something that is merely known because I talk about it now, for instance. I talk about it now, and can talk about it now, because you have some experience in this regard and it means something to you. Lots of people hear something, but it is the doing that permits the stability, and the consequent generation of substance allowing for the release of power. 

This generation takes place individually. We each individually have responsibility for what is describable in terms of concentric spheres. As there is a moving into the finer substance of heaven because it has been generated, there is made available the facility of blending with others. The blending takes place at the level of heaven rightly, when we find our relationships with others. If we short‑circuit the business simply by finding a relationship in hell or in the earth by itself (that's hell), then we can never know what blending is; we can never know what the truth is. To know that truth one has to experience a blending in oneself. Then it is possible to participate in a blending of relationship with others. 

When I say that I'm not talking about intimate blendings necessarily. There are all kinds of blendings that take place. We have all kinds of relationships obviously. Let's not immediately sort of narrow it down to one supreme relationship that's going to appear. It will never appear on that basis—if it is right that a relationship of that sort should appear. And don't jump to conclusions in this regard; don't assume that this is the be‑all and end‑all of your experience; it isn't. It may be a useful element for the achievement of what needs to be done while you're here on earth. This incidentally tends to dispose of the concept that many have had of the eternal nature of relationship, humanly established. Let's not super­impose any human concepts on the truth, but let us discover rather what the truth is. 

There is this substance of heaven, life substance, womb substance, and love substance. Of course it is all love substance—just love substance at different levels of vibratory manifestation. There is no other substance but the substance of love, in actual fact. But when we come to the level of the pure love substance, while in a sense it may be seen as one's outermost sphere of substance, it isn't quite so containable as that. After all, love substance is all the substance there is, so it's everyplace in the dimensional universe. It is difficult to find analogies to describe what happens. Of course. Here is something of a seventh dimension and we haven't probably even got beyond the second. But it is this love substance which is found to be common to all the groupings, all the patterns of relationship.

This grouping we have here becomes a blended body by reason of this love substance which we share. We cannot really make claims for it as our own. It is our own; it's a part of what we are. But we can't restrict it to that. It is shared by all of us together. In fact we discover that this heavenly sub­stance is what is shared. It is here that the blending takes place. And that blending then in heaven is made evident on earth because of the pure heart, so that the blending in heaven then appears, emerges, as a blending on earth, a blending of whatever the particular grouping may be for the particular purpose. Rightly, of course, we may see that there is an overall blending which includes mankind. And all other groupings are contained within that, right down to the one‑to‑one relationship. 

We begin to see that all relationships rightly are made in heaven—they emerge out of the fact that there has been a blending in heaven of whatever nature and quality that might be. Let us certainly not assume that a blending in heaven is all of one consistency; it isn't. Clearly we have all kinds of relationships with people, rightly so, and they do not all emerge in the earthly sense on some sort of physically intimate basis. We're concerned, after all, with something coming down from God out of heaven; not with trying to satisfy ourselves with the available material on earth. That is what caused the fall in the first place. We're not trying to get satisfaction anyway, even spiritual satisfaction. 

We are concerned to participate in the creative process which brings with it blending, union, oneness. We're not going to try to impose human ideas about that on the truth; at least I trust we're not. I'm not interested, I know! I'd like to know what the truth is. And we have to find that out in our experience moment by moment. We can't say at any given moment, “Ah, at last! I've got it. Here's the truth. Now I know the truth.” You know the truth possibly (unlikely at the moment), you know the truth for this moment, but you don't know it yet for what it will be tomorrow or what it will be one second from the present moment. The truth is not so little that it could be encompassed by our minds in one moment. I think that, if we have any awareness of the real nature of truth, we would see that that would explode and shatter the mind instantly. Because the truth is of eternity. It takes eternity to know the truth. We wouldn't want to try to encompass that in a moment, would we? Ridiculous. But there is the truth of the moment and that can find expression, not encompassed entirely by our minds but our minds will be part of the means by which this truth is allowed to emerge into expression in the dimensional world. 

So we are concerned with allowing the heart to be purified, and while the purification process is going on there is the generation of the essential substance which will fill out the vibratory levels of heaven in our own personal experience. This is the first order of business. It's an individual thing. But we see that as this begins to fill out the heaven we find that we are in fact connected. There is a blending which will occur in consequence at the heavenly level. How that manifests in the earthly sense remains to be seen—how it manifests individually speaking and how it manifests in whatever grouping, such as this Assembly, may be the fact of the moment. 

As I say, there is a recognition of the ultimate experience of this blending insofar as the whole of humanity is concerned and that is the restoration. So we are concerned with the experience ourselves so that we can function on the basis of the truth we know. And it is this that is spiritual expression. Then there is the generation of power in the collective sense by which—generation of power because the substance has been generated to release it—by which we may do what we're here to do. 

We can hear about these things as we are this morning, but there is the doing, of course, required, if there is to be that stable point of orienta­tion, that stable means by which whatever next needs to be done can be done. Now I'm not saying that what is being experienced now is merely a matter of hearing—I'm sure it isn't; there's something more than the hearing occurring because you correlate these things with your own expe­rience. It is what you are doing, what your experience is, that counts in the moment. The extent to which the heart is being purified and the extent to which the heavenly substance is being generated. 

Here we begin to find a means by which we may handle our individual and collective fields of responsibility, remembering always that our individual fields of responsibility are not isolated from the larger fields of responsibility—we can never take the attitude that anything we do is our business alone. There are some things which are mostly our own individual business. There are other things we do which are mostly a collective business. And there are all gradations in between. But we never come to a point where anything we do is solely our business. If that was so we would have removed ourselves entirely from the whole, and our only meaning is in the whole, so we never have a sense of isolation then. If we have a sense of isolation it is because we ourselves remove ourselves from the whole. No one ever imposes upon us isolation. But if a person hasn't found anything in relationship to himself, then it may be a tiresome experience to be isolated externally. You only find that to be a terrible thing if you have no internal connection, but if the internal connections are there and here is the weight, the value, the meaning, well it's a very little thing that something happens externally, to make you feel uncomfortable. You are still associated with all that is and what human nature may be doing around you is merely providing you with your field of action—using it to advantage. If anything grabs you strongly in the external sense, it is suspect immediately! Our concern is to be one with the truth and out of that springs all that rightly should spring. Many proper relationships of every hue and description. In such a state there could be no sense of isolation, even externally.

So our concern is to let this emerge to the glory of God within the range of our own increasing experience, letting substance be generated because our hearts are pure and we're not constantly involved in all these things out here. This is not to say that we are not alert or observant with respect to eternal things. After all, this is our creative field where we're going to have to handle things the way they should be handled, so we need to know what's there. But we don't take what's there and jump into the middle of it and just be merely something else that's there. We need to be here. And let that be there. Then we can deal with it on the basis of the generation of the substance of heaven because of purity of heart.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

This Is The Real World

This  Is  The  Real  World

Martin Exeter   May 5, 1980    from  Assembly — Sunrise Ranch

Emissaries of Divine Light is the name of a college from which we have graduated into the real world

How much are we capable of enfolding and encompassing? When we graduate from school, spiritual school, we become responsible in a real world. In that world there are a lot of unreal people. We're not too interested in the school from which we graduated. I don't think even in the human world, after leaving school, one drags the school around with one, trying to tell everybody about it. Graduating from spiritual school, we have assumed a certain maturity of responsibility which is our own, individually speaking. Of course at this point we are aware of the whole, of the fact that our individual expression, while it must stand because it is the expression of truth, is also an aspect of a far greater truth. We are a part of that far greater truth to the extent that our expression is true—that we are mature enough to be spiritually responsible for ourselves. That doesn't take us into a position of isolation. It offers connection with the far greater truth of which our individual truth is simply an aspect.

We have a field of enfoldment and encompassment, immediately available to us as we assume our mature spiritual responsibilities in the individual sense. Mention is made in the Book of Revelation about the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. I am sure you all recognize that this is the true state of spiritual consciousness, a new state insofar as human experience is concerned, which comes down from God out of heaven. Later, with respect to this holy city, there is indication that nothing should enter into it that defiles or whatsoever worketh abomination or makes a lie. In our own living, here is the holy place in which we abide. We find that there are others who abide in that holy place with us, so it is not merely an individual thing. Here is something coming down from God out of heaven and factually emerging on earth, because of us and all those who provide the means by which it may so emerge—a holy place into which nothing that does not belong may enter in.

Now we may see this, first of all, as a personal state for which we individually are responsible within ourselves. And we also see it as a collective state for which we are individually responsible too, that nothing should enter into that collective of the holy place. Only as there is such a holy place can there be the factual reality of the priesthood on earth. This is the basis for the enfoldment, and beyond that again the encompassment, which is our primary responsibility in the real world.

All that does not belong in the holy place is excluded. But let us not merely look at it in a negative way, because then it would be entirely empty, wouldn't it? It wouldn't stay empty long; nature abhors a vacuum. It is a matter of letting it be filled with the real quality of spirit, consequent upon our own living experience.

But our concern is with this matter of enfoldment. We have individual spheres of enfoldment, which are, of course, at the same time included in the collective sphere of enfoldment. We never try to lift our individual spheres of enfoldment out of the whole, because immediately we would lose the reality of that enfoldment. We would lose our association with the holy place. So we extend an enfoldment to those who are beginning to see the light—we could put it that way. They only begin to see the light because of our expression of the spirit of God, individually and together, moving upon the face of the waters that are present in the consciousness of mankind, and out of that consciousness will come certain individual focalizations in response. These are those in whom the light is beginning to shine, so that they begin to see some more and understand more of the quality of life—and these require enfoldment.

The enfoldment is beyond the holy place, insofar as we are concerned, because obviously anyone coming will have those things that don't belong in the holy place. Therefore you cannot willy‑nilly invite anyone into the holy place who gives some evidence of experiencing an increase of light in their own consciousness. So here is a realm of enfoldment beyond the holy place. We have described this in terms of the outer court and the encampment. But we see this realm of enfoldment and keep it clear as there are those who are welcomed into it.

Within this realm of enfoldment there is rest. I suppose this is the first matter that emphasizes itself to a person. Maybe it did to us—at last we're home, so to speak; a feeling of rest. As the Master put it, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” So there is a place of rest, where the turmoil may begin to drain away out of people. It is also a place of safety, where there is a sense of being protected. It is our responsibility to provide this. It is also a place of education. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” All right, education. This is the nature of the place of enfoldment which we rightly provide. Are we going to say that this place of enfoldment is a very restricted place, into which only two or three people can fit? Or do we recognize the reality of it, which is vastly more than the holy place?

The holy place is, in this sense, a small place—there are not too many who are capable of functioning as the priesthood in the holy place, who are capable, individually speaking, of maintaining that holy place in their own experience, never allowing anything that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie to enter in. Only those who are of the priesthood are in the holy place. When there are those, and the holy place is present because of them, then the influence of that extends on out in enfoldment of others. And we have a place beyond us that is far more capable of including people than, presently, is the holy place.

If we use the symbolism of the encampment, well that's a big place, lots of room. We need to have this attitude, that there may be no exclusion of any point of light that begins to emerge because the spirit which we have been offering in our living has been moving upon the face of the waters of humanity. All right, humanity is spread around; there are quite a few of them out there. Are we going to say well, we'll take a dozen? Or is it going to be open?

We are capable individually and together of providing this large place of enfoldment. Perhaps it needs to be larger than it has been thus far. And it isn't the place of enfoldment with anticipation that those who are so enfolded are going to become hooked up somehow with Emissaries of Divine Light. Emissaries of Divine Light is the name of a college from which we have graduated into the real world. While we may have some college reunions on occasion, we are really about the Father's business in the world. And we are introducing people to that on the basis of invitation to the place of enfoldment. There are those who come in, and there is work to be done relative to those we enfold. Obviously there is the general pattern of rest which is offered, the provision of the sense of protection and safety, and then education. This education doesn't merely relate to what we have thought of as spiritual education in the orthodox Emissary sense: “Well, people must be brought to Class,” and so on. It isn't necessarily that at all. There is a far wider field of education than that. This perhaps is specialized education with respect to those who may, if they will, be included in the priesthood, to stand in the holy place. But the vast majority don't, or won't.

And yet there is something of education needful—a reconditioning of consciousness, to begin with. There are various means of providing this—enfolding them where they are, letting people alone, not trying to make them into something that we think would be better, but letting people alone. Let them be enfolded. There are various classifications of people who more easily relate to this area or that area. There are other gatherings we have, of many kinds. And there will be increasing numbers—if we are doing our job—wholistic gatherings for instance, considerations in various fields, into which people may be invited and in which they may be enfolded. On this basis there is a beginning made, at least, with respect to a reconditioning of consciousness.

Some changes may be wrought, so that those concerned may feel more at home in the encampment than they did where they were before they became aware of the fact that there was an encampment. If we play our parts correctly they will have a sense of enfoldment; they will have the increasing experience of rest initially, a sense of protection, and begin to actually experience education without maybe telling them so. As long as we experience the reality, do we need to be told that we are experiencing it? Probably if we were told we would set up a resistance against it. That's the way human nature is.

So we let it be, not a con game—not an Emissary con game—but the provision of what is necessary to allow some things to happen in people, about which they may not know is occurring. But they will only occur to the extent that those concerned are open to let it occur. It's not being imposed. If they are open to receive it they will receive it; if they're not they won't. So there is the enfoldment.

And beyond that again there is encompassment—the encompassment of everything, of all humanity, indeed of the world. It is all‑inclusive. We have our points of contact which increasingly enable a greater effectiveness in that encompassment. It has been, evidently, sufficiently effective thus far to prevent some final disaster from striking. But as it all intensifies there will need to be a greater control extended in a more specific way. It might be said that this encompassment could be compared to casting a net over the world, a net of control and containment, dominion and containment. The net is composed of interlocking meshes which relate to people.

We find ourselves associated with people who have, in one way or another, connections into the state of the tribes of the earth beyond the encampment. Usually these connections are those who come into the encampment, who participate in the enfoldment, and through them there may be an extension of the net of encompassment. We need to be alert in this regard, so that we do not take arbitrary Emissary attitudes with respect to anyone, thereby excluding that person from enfoldment. We see the value of people by reason of their associations. If such people are open to enfoldment, so that they come closer, then through such people we can reach what is beyond.

There are already the beginnings of such a network in various fields with which I am familiar—far more than even those who are the points of connection understand or see. We need to be aware that this is an open‑ended process. We think of things as being small because they are close, but it is through these apparently small things that the larger things are encompassed and the dominion of God begins to be an increasing reality on earth, regardless of the thrashings around of the dragon, regardless of the human‑nature state which still seeks to govern out there.

Here we have a consciousness of ministry which transcends, I am sure, the usual Emissary viewpoint, because it begins to become no longer an illusion, but the actuality. The actuality is related to people—and what we extend as enfoldment and encompassment is not some little viewpoint as a cult on earth. This is the real thing, and we reach a point of actually being willing to acknowledge this. There has been a hesitancy to acknowledge this, and the endeavour to maintain a cult, because it felt safer. But to really reach out—that is what is required!

© Emissaries of Divine Light