Pour You Out A Blessing

Pour  You  Out  A  Blessing

Martin Cecil   May 30, 1976

As usual after a Sunday morning service, I received quite a number of letters, some of them very excellent. There is one that I would like to share with you this evening. It was written by Pat Zaher. She says:

“The Holy Spirit of Life is evidenced everywhere as a flow out. If I am possessed of the Holy Spirit, my mind may not be able to categorize its qualities, but my heart feels, senses, only a flow OUT—a COMPLETE flow OUT. In heavenly orientation there is in my capacities ONLY that which gives. If there is still any wish to act in such a way that anything, no matter how seemingly ‘needful,’ might flow in—i.e., be pulled toward me—here is earthly orientation. If in my consciousness there are any voids-to-be-filled in me—Satan is still sitting pretty. All the voids-to-be-filled are out there, to be filled with ME—I AM the completeness which flows ever outward, ever outward, to fill the empty places in the world in the cycles of the Lord’s creative purposes. There is nothing else, no other reason to be here, no blessing to be found, no fulfilment to be sought. There is only MYSELF to be poured out a blessing into the earth, always, always, forever and ever without pause and without end. HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!’’

We were considering this morning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In this letter of response it is rather accurately and beautifully summarized. That outpouring is characterized by fire. In the story of the Day of Pentecost long ago, when the disciples and others were gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem to be with one accord in one place, there was a mighty rushing wind, or the sound like unto that. But the cycle was completed with fire. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit relates to the fire which falls from heaven—a fire of great intensity. This morning, in the comment period down at my house, I mentioned this matter of fire by which changes are wrought in the internal state of human beings. It has been emphasized that only spiritual expression gets the job done. Nothing that the human mind can do, no manipulations on its part, can accomplish what needs to happen.

The human mind is present in human beings on the basis of the quality of material of which human beings are composed. This quality is present in the very flesh of human beings. As the human mind is simply the consciousness of the flesh, it can be seen that there is not too much distinction between mind and body. It is said that the earthly factors of heredity are recorded in chemical terms within the cells of the body. These hereditary factors, being part of the flesh of the body, are also part of the mental equipment. As long as these hereditary factors, in the earthly sense, are dominant in human experience and expression, clearly there is the fact of what we have called earthly orientation. The individual is simply revealing what is present in his flesh in the earthly sense. In this way the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children even unto the third and fourth generation, and more. And it has seemed to many that they had good excuse for their rather despicable behavior on occasion. As long as earthly orientation prevails, Satan is sitting pretty. The individual jumps to his command, albeit for the most part quite unconscious of the fact that this is what he is doing. He may claim to be free, but no human being in earthly orientation is ever free.

Seeing that this is the condition in which people everywhere find themselves, it may look like an impossible task that it should ever be caused to change. If the mind, which itself needs to change, is looking at the picture, it can really see no way by which anything might be done. Various concepts have been developed as to the possibility of somehow breeding a super race of human beings. This would be the lowest kind of science fiction, I would suppose. No. Only by the Holy Spirit can the changes be caused to appear. The Holy Spirit has opportunity to initiate such changes to the extent that there is a willingness on the part of the individual to let it occur in spite of the dire warnings of the human intellect. We’ve often used the quote from the Old Testament: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.” This is the only way it works. Human beings have been a little inclined, if they have given any consideration to the matter of spirit, to sit around waiting for the spirit to come and do its work. The fault, if it doesn’t happen, is then easily laid at the door of the spirit: “There I was, waiting—I’d been waiting for years maybe—and the spirit never did anything.” Some excuse the spirit by taking the attitude that the ways of God are inscrutable and therefore we just have to abide in patience until He finally gets around to releasing some of this efficacious spirit. But it isn’t really that way. Human beings may have thought that they were waiting for the spirit when in fact the spirit was waiting for human beings.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is obviously something flowing out. If one is identified with the expression of the Holy Spirit, which is spiritual expression, then one is identified with the experience of an outflow. This is the Holy Spirit, complete and entire, nothing else. So there is nothing else but the outflow in the experience. That outflow is consequent upon what we have called heavenly orientation. Should there be anything which a person feels he has to get to himself then there is identification to that extent with an inflow. And the inflow state will in that person’s experience frustrate or prevent the outflow. If the outflow is prevented heavenly orientation is dissolved and earthly orientation prevails.

There have been, over the years, many martyrs in the world, some of them so designated because they were burned at the stake. I’m not thinking of those quite so much as the rest of us who have felt, at times, that we were sacrificing something by serving the Lord. We were being very good; we were going to serve the Lord and surely He would look kindly upon the afflictions that we must suffer because of this attitude on our part. What blasphemous arrogance! When we are identified with what is flowing out we have no sense of lack. The Lord is my shepherd; I do not want.

That outflow relates to the fire force—a high-intensity radiation. In my comments this morning after service, someone had mentioned how the program on an audio tape may be expunged by running it through the recorder with the correct setting on the head, so that the electrical impulse would dissipate the recording on the tape. This provides an analogy which relates to what we are talking about now with respect to the fire. For that recording to be expunged from the tape, the tape must be close to the head; it must run past the head, so to speak, so that the radiation from the head can get the job done. By the same token, one may put a tape on which there is a recording into the machine and record a new message on it at the same time that the old one is being expunged. If we consider this analogy in application to ourselves it may be seen that it is important to stay close to the recording head, because the process of the fire is not only to expunge what is already on the human tape but to record a new message, a heavenly message, the message of heavenly heredity.

There is a means by which that untrue recording may be erased and the true recording established in its place. The means is by the fire, the fire which is known by reason of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This may occur in a gathering such as this in varying degrees, according to the closeness of the tapes, in those concerned, to the recording head. If there is even a little gap in between, it won’t work too effectively. The deeper changes that are needed can only occur when there is, in effect, oneness between the recording head and the recording. Perhaps some of the shallower elements on the recording can be changed a little by being in the vicinity of the recording head when there is the development of sufficient intensity. Such changes have occurred in the experience of many of you, and others. If they are real changes, they have come to pass on this basis, because there was some closeness with the recording head experienced by reason of an open heart.

However, we may take note of the fact that there are other heads around. The beast or the dragon, as I recall, had at least seven of them, all ready and prepared to replace the erased recording with another one of a similar nature. That replacement occurs when a person gets too close to one of those heads. If he or she does this, the recording is firmly established to the extent that there is oneness with the quality of spirit which characterizes that head, or those heads. Now, you know when you find yourself expressing a spirit of envy, jealousy, resentment, martyrdom, self-pity, or any of these spirits, that you are one with that spirit and therefore one with that recording head. Then, whatever is put on your tape is either being rerecorded or the recording is being established more deeply.

There is only one way by which the change may come, and that is by being close to the true recording head and staying close. Now, what has often occurred is that those who attended a service, for instance, for the moment came close, so that there was an intensification, a certain measure of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sufficient to produce some changes in those concerned. Those changes were, perhaps, felt quite vividly during the service because the individual, during that period, was close to the recording head, so that some recording had been made of the true nature. But then this matter of being close to the recording head is forgotten, to whatever degree, when the individual goes forth, and there are all these other recording heads waiting around to re-establish the old message. And the individual goes right back close to the old recording heads, and then wonders why changes don’t seem to occur as is expected. Of course they don’t! We are only safe to the extent that we stay close to the true recording head, because the message isn’t complete yet; in fact, one might question as to when it would ever be complete. There is something to be recorded in every moment that is right and fitting in the moment.

How about the sound that is coming through you, the recording that is playing by reason of you? Does something accurate begin to be heard by others, and then it starts to squeal? Or some other noise drowns it out, or simply a blank? If that occurs, then obviously, in those spaces, you were not close to the recording head. You allowed, perhaps, a bit of dirt to get in between, and so it messed things up. We need to see it clearly, that these works, and greater works collectively, can only be achieved by the fire which falls from heaven. It is not enough that the fire should fall from heaven, but that we should be on hand, close, to let it operate in our own continuing experience, so that all the falsity of our earthly heredity may be blotted out. It is not only a matter of being blotted out, leaving an empty tape. If that should happen, then no doubt seven worse spirits would come in to occupy the space, because you would be drawn close to the seven heads of the beast once again. There must be something recorded. Let the recording stay put because you stay close to the recording head. It is the fire of love which consumes a person who stays close to the Lord. And in consuming, all the distorted patterns are eliminated, dissolved. In the individual sense, those distorted patterns are going to be dissolved by the fire eventually in any case, and that dissolution tends to be a rather painful business. In an attitude of thankfulness for the joy of drawing close to the Lord, so that the fire of His love may fall from heaven, all that is necessary may be achieved easily.

I mentioned this morning that those who have actually experienced heavenly orientation never again experience earthly orientation. They may be aware of what is present in earthly orientation but, as Pat put it in her letter, that’s out there. It is not what I am; it is not what you are. You are poured out a blessing. The fire does not burn the fire. And when you are one with the fire, there is no sense of heat. There may be an awareness of power, but because that power is you it is not uncomfortable. It may, perhaps, be uncomfortable for somebody else who is not open to be one with the fire. If there is resistance to the intensification, it is a painful and unhappy business.

I have noted various ones who are unhappy at times. The unhappier they get the better! Maybe they’ll decide it isn’t worthwhile. But, paradoxically, many people seem to take the attitude that they are only happy when they are unhappy, otherwise why would they stay that way? No one who has been in the vicinity of the recording head could excuse himself on the basis of ignorance. Others, in other places, conceivably might. But we have no excuses; we know better. How a person can lie around, wallowing in a state of unhappiness for months, and even years, always seems to me quite incredible. Here is something I don’t really understand. And yet, it is done. Nonsensical, isn’t it? Particularly if there has been any true vision at all. And why would anyone be in the vicinity of the recording head if there had not been the experience of some true vision? To take the attitude that what had been seen in that sense isn’t worth very much, that all the miseries are worth more, is a very contradictory attitude to take, isn’t it? Quite unnecessary. Not only for the person concerned but for other people, because nobody can indulge himself in unhappiness, for instance, without bumping up against other people. Why not agree with the truth instead of with a lie?

As there is agreement with the truth, then there is a flowing out. And that flowing out is so strong that nothing can check it. Again, the supreme example of that was in Jesus. That flowing out was so strong that nothing human beings could do to Him could check it; it was still there. Now, it is this outflow that is the awakening process. We have noted that the head of the body awakens first. Before the head is awake, it may be in a sort of twilight zone where there is an awareness of something but not very much yet. In that sort of state, the awakening of the body of the Son of God, there was much concern to find others who might become members of the body of the Son of God. There was no real awareness that it already existed, it was asleep. As we begin to awaken we become aware of the fact that the whole body is present. We’re not frantically running around trying to collect one individual in a million to participate in what we think of as our ministry. There is a whole body already on hand. It’s all there, quite complete, quite adequate. You don’t have to make it be; it’s there.

What is needed is that we should awaken to the fact that it is there. Perchance this is what is happening to some degree. We begin to discover that as we emerge from our slumbers there are a whole lot of other people around. “Amazing! I didn’t think they were there before,” but they were. All of you have been around for quite a number of years. I personally wasn’t in position to notice a lot of you for quite a while, and then you put in an appearance. There you were. Where did you come from? You were there all the time. And so it is with the whole body; it’s been there all the time, and will continue to be there.

But if the body is to awaken, that awakening process centers in the head. And there comes an awareness in the head of the fact of the body—the whole body. And then the body stirs and becomes aware of itself. When you wake up in the morning and get out of bed you don’t forget and leave your arm lying in bed still. The arm comes right along; everything holds together. This is true of the body of the Son of God. What is the thing that is of most importance then? That you should get the foot to wake up? What’s the use of an awakened foot if the head is still asleep? No. It is for the head to awaken. And that relates presumably to us, first and foremost, not to those other slumbering people out there. They’ll wake up for sure if we do, but if we assume that our twilight experiences are wakefulness, we may decide that we don’t wish to wake beyond that point, and so nobody else does. But if we keep moving in the cycles of awakening, then we find that the whole body pretty soon is awake with us. It may arise and stand upon its feet on earth. And when it does that, of course, human beings everywhere cannot avoid recognizing that it is so.

As long as the body is asleep, tucked away in the graveclothes, nobody wants to look inside the graveclothes very much anyway. And so it is assumed that there isn’t anything there, of any moment at least. Whatever may be there is supposed to be dead. But when there is the living body on earth, then it is impossible to ignore. That in itself may engender some opposition, but what was it that was said by the One whose body it is? “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” There is no problem insofar as He is concerned, just a void, a void which is filled in the moment because He is poured into the earth through all those who compose His body. But more particularly a creative expression appears, by reason of the control that extends from the head.

We share in this awakening because we participate in letting the fire fall from heaven. That fire burns up all that is not true to itself. The destructive earthly orientation is eliminated and all that remains in the body of the Son of God is the reality of the heavenly heredity. The fire falls from heaven because of that body, and it consumes all that is in the earth. It is thus that the earth is cleansed of all unrighteousness. This is a natural creative process, one in which we have some little experience ourselves already, but there is vastly more to be known. Let us continue to be willing to awaken because of heavenly orientation. And heavenly orientation holds us close to the recording head. Then the job gets done.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Fountain-Like Expression of Life

from

The  Fountain-Like  Expression  of  Life

Uranda   July 27, 1953  Class

In carrying forward the pattern of Heavenly Magic or the magic of living, I would like to find the right way to help you to a realization of practical function in the Shekinah Pattern of Being. You are beginning to sense it, beginning to know it, but there needs to be practice, there needs to be the development of experience. The maturing expression of experience fills life with richness, with meaningfulness.

We have considered the seven patterns of the endocrine system at various times in various ways, but there still tends to be a sense of something more or less obscure or unrelated to oneself; there is a recognition of the fact and yet, in a larger sense it has not become the reality of Truth, in the sense of design and control—that is, it has not become the reality of Truth to you to the fullness that it should.

I do not wish to open up cycles which we cannot properly carry forward sufficiently in the period allotted to us in the few weeks yet remaining for our togetherness in person, but there needs to be a development of the centering of the mind—there tends to be a scattering of the mind. I have mentioned in time past, what I call a noisy mind. In our class periods, any noisy mind tends to make itself known. Did you know that? A noisy mind reveals itself by its noise, by its failure to function effectively in relationship to the pattern at hand. In order to give a deeper sense of actual function in the pattern of control or dominion, in the realization that the currents of control, influence, the release of power, are working through the seven seals, individually and collectively, I would like to lead, if you will follow, to a point a little later in this meditation period, where we can center attention, let the mind come to point. Now if you start trying to think about the point, you will develop a knock or a noisiness in the mind.

The process of thinking is really quite different from what most people imagine it to be. There must be alertness and real observation, a recognition of the proper way to connect up points and correlate—real thinking involves an unfolding process, but you have to let it unfold. Suppose I gave you a key thought and asked you to all write something, an expression of realization on the basis of this key thought, and all of you had the same starting point, the same key. Some of you might find difficulty in finding anything to write; others would tend to write on the basis of an old pattern, more or less just the expression of words. Some of the points brought out might be quite correct, but the fountain-like unfolding of the essence of Truth which might appear in relationship to the key thought would probably not develop too well with any of you. I think that I can safely say that all of you need to learn to think more effectively. And, if this expression of ideas failed to follow out the fountain nature of the unfolding of the thought, it would show up in more or less crystallized patterns of expression—the arbitrary projection of a particular wording, a particular habit pattern of thought, a particular aspect of your own nature.

You could, some of you at least, take that key thought and just arbitrarily build something, put together ideas and thoughts on the basis of—what shall we say?—what you might think I would want you to do, perhaps. But not the natural unfolding, like something coming out of a fountain. Did you ever look at a fountain, perhaps in lights, and consider its significance? We have seen fountains in various place, whether at a World Fair or somewhere, in some gardens or some particular place—the sense of the fountain constantly flowing, the patterns in which the drops fall or the water falls, depending on the nature of the fountain, how fine a spray is involved, and the play of color, perhaps. Sometimes that play of color may have been just from the working of the light through the water—a rainbow effect from the sun. Other times it may have appeared by reason of colored lights or of a white light, securing something of a rainbow effect—various possibilities—but the bubbling of the fountain.

As the fountain bubbles does it arbitrarily determine this drop shall fall here, this drop shall fall there. If the fountain is so busy trying to make each drop hit just where it should, there would be a lot of drops getting by that would fall without direction. Now I am not talking about something that goes out from under control or that leaves the reality of design. In the true expression of thinking there is something of a rhythm, perhaps sometimes a bit of poetry—something that naturally unfolds. Thinking is not a process arbitrarily imposed upon an idea, it is the bubbling expression of the idea itself. Let us note this principle in relationship to the physical body for a moment.

I pointed out to you that the body, as such, has no choice. It does have the power or the ability to feel pain so that it can object to something that hurts or it has the ability to enjoy some certain sensations so that they are welcome, but the body has no choice. Your body—it has to just take whatever you impose upon it, and because human beings start imposing things on their bodies, the body that has no choice, arbitrary patterns develop and instead of the bubbling expression of the fountain of life there begins to be a pattern of crystallized existence, and finally the fountain dies out. The bubbling, unfolding expression of life ceases, because of the arbitrary impositions exerted from external sources upon the body, and then the mind or the heart may accept some of those arbitrary things and impose them from within. But they are first imposed from external sources, perhaps in babyhood or perhaps even in the prenatal period; perhaps from the standpoint of the genes going back generations, but something imposed from without, which taken within is likewise imposed from within on an arbitrary pattern—and the body is subjected to these things. The body, as such, cannot choose. It may object to pain and seek pleasant sensation, but if the mind and heart are not functioning as true guardians, true comforters, there will be a continued arbitrary imposition of that which produces pain. The human being may say, “But I'm seeking pleasure. I like pleasant things. I like pleasant sensations”—but functioning without regard to the true bubbling expression of life, the fountain manifestation of life, imposes this and that upon his body, seeking to have something pleasant, and it prevents the fountain-like manifestation of life.

Now if we see this in relationship to the body, the physical pattern of life, perhaps it will make it easier to see it in relationship to the mind itself; for in all three aspects of the Shekinah Pattern of Being there must be the fountain-like manifestation of life, the fountain expression with respect to the mind in the processes of true thinking and the fountain-like manifestation of Love as the Fire that burns. If any of you have ever tried to impose love, either to make yourself love someone or trying to impose what you deem to be love upon another when it was not accepted, you found that such imposed substitutes for love are very very unsatisfactory. They do not work really. If there is love, it is because there is a fountain flowing from the inside, and the interchange of love works on the basis of radiation and response, a give and take, an interplay; but some people are like cavities, like caverns, like volcanic pits in the ground. There is a big cavern into which you can pour a lot of life or a lot of love or something, and they may like the sensation while you are pouring it, but nothing ever answers, nothing ever responds. The individual may act insulted if you stop pouring in, but there is no response, no cycle, no interplay, no reality of the fountain. In such cases, you cannot really do anything.

In the true interplay of the vibratory forces of being, there is a sharing; in that interplay, no one tries to get but is so busy giving that the individuals own receiving comes as something special, something delightful, something that you did not try to get, but comes to you as a gift of giving, which you receive. And as you build or rebuild the altar unto the Lord, the body or the soul restored, you begin to share the experience of living with others. It includes all three aspects of the Shekinah Pattern of Being, and it is in the interplay and the experience of that interplay of giving and receiving that we begin to have the pattern of experience which gives maturity, background richness. If we are to have this bubbling up from the fountain, we have to contact the fountain.

The Master made the statement with respect to the Water of Truth, that if we receive of that water, we will never thirst. Why? Because one drink is enough to last a lifetime? No. If you just receive a cup of water and say, “Well now, you will never be thirsty again”, that would be foolish. Why never thirst? Not because it is just a cup of water from the outside, but because by reason of function in relationship to that cup of water, the individual is assisted to a position of finding the fountain, and the fountain bubbles up from within, and if it is there and it never runs dry, if it is always flowing, why should you thirst again? You may get thirsty enough to take another drink, but that is not real thirst—you never become really thirsty because the well runs dry, because there is no water, because there is no fountain—and it is this bubbling fountain which permits the manifestation of the true processes of living, whether in the body from the standpoint of life and healing, or whether in the mind from the standpoint of life and thinking, or whether in the heart from the standpoint of life and feeling—there must be the fountain.

To assist you to find this fountain and to share it, is our purpose here; not to impose something from the outside but to offer something from the outside that will help you connect up with something inside, so that you will be sharing; it will be the expression through you. In order to achieve this end, we have to remove the arbitrary patterns that have been imposed for so long from the outside and which have been accepted inside; the substitutes that man has devised to take the place of the fountain. So often parents impose some kind of an arbitrary pattern upon their children. I am not suggesting that there should not be discipline, government, control, but the individual expression of life must come out according to the design of that individual child, and if the parent assumes to force into a pattern of arbitrary life, it becomes something unnatural, something that ought not to be, something imposed, and it shuts off the approach to the fountain. Now we need not look for a scapegoat and start blaming parents or someone else, but if the fountain is not there, we should begin to seek for it.

The Master said, “Seek ye first”—not secondly, not after you have done everything else you think you ought to do—“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto you.” What things? Perhaps not the things that you think you are trying to get as of now, but “all of these things” are the things of Heaven, the things of God. Human beings sometimes repeat those words or read them and think, “Well now, the things I'd like to have: a house, an automobile, a bank account, a friend, a change in my husband, wife, parent, someone. I'd like to have all of these things, so if I do this, then these things that I want will be added.” Now that is not what it says. That is not the Divine Design at all. You are not supposed to want in the first place. You can open to a pattern for the filling without wanting in the ordinary sense, but if you want this or that, and think they are going to be added because you say, “Well now, I'll keep an eye on those things, but I'll seek first the Kingdom of God. I'll watch over my shoulder, but I'll seek this so I can get that.” It does not work.

What is the Kingdom of God? It is here. It is the Shekinah Pattern of Being. A kingdom is a place of control, is it not? If there is really a Kingdom in a true sense then there is a king and the king has meaning. He is not just a figurehead. In a true kingdom, the king has some power; the king has some authority; the king exerts some control, and so, the Kingdom of God is anywhere where God's control is felt and known. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God—the place where God's control has true meaning in you and through you. Well now, how shall this Kingdom, this control manifest? In relationship to your body, it must rise up in the pattern of life. In relationship to your mind, it must rise up in the pattern of thinking, the function of the mind, the light that glows. In relationship to your heart, it must rise up in relationship to love, the things you feel and perceive through feeling. So, the Shekinah Pattern of Being which reveals the presence of the One Who Dwells, or God, or God Being, must be the means by which we begin to know the realities that are. If we accept the Shekinah Pattern of Being and begin to seek to come under that control, we are then seeking the Kingdom of God.

Now if we say, “I’d like to have the Power of God so I can do this and achieve that and get the other thing”, we are wrong. But if we say, “I will seek the Kingdom of God, the control aspects of the Kingdom, the Power of God in relationship to my own life; I will seek to let life bubble up in the fountain expression of Being”—with the coming of life there will surely come the control necessary to the uses of life. When life is diminishing we have a sense of something out from under control, and very often the human being becomes desperate and says, “But how am I going to govern my life?” How are you going to govern your life? The government of your life must arise from the source of your life, for if you try to govern your life, you are going to impose something on it that begins to make it diminish. We are not here to govern our lives but to let our lives be governed.

If we have truly found the fountain of life, then the governing factors with respect to the expression of life appear as life appears. The laws are there in advance perhaps, certain principles, certain factors set for the receiving of life, but the actual governing of life must appear with the instant of the manifestation of life. You can not say, “Well now I have all of the controls ready; I’ll go get a chunk of life; I'll bring it over here, get it under control and make it mean something.” You cannot go get a piece of life like you might go get a slice of beef off of a carcass. Life evolves, life unfolds. Life is the child of Love and Truth, and so, as life manifests, in the instant of its manifestation—not before and not afterward—the elements of control with respect to the function of that life appear; they are there then in that instant. If they are thwarted or ignored and not allowed to act, then you have a little current of life which is on a diminishing pattern that is out from under control for the moment, and so the human being tries to impose control or use it.

Do you know what I think of as an illustration in this regard. My little son had, I do not know whether he still has it, but he was very proud of a little squirt gun, a little water pistol, and he would fill up this little water pistol and go squirting it around here and there. The life that comes out of the fountain and is not allowed to manifest in relationship to the control elements that should appear with the manifestation of life goes on out like a little squirt from a squirt gun—little squirts of life out from under control. You aim it this way and it goes maybe a little ways, and you aim it this way and try to reach that, like a child with a squirt gun, a little water pistol—little squirts of life here and there, and after the water squirts out of the pistol you want to control it then, and make it land so, and do so and so, and it is too late; too late, and life gives a sense of being out from under control. We should not be children with water pistols trying to live life.

We should be mature men and women letting life express like a fountain, and with the fountain expression of life, there always appears with life, the elements essential for its own control—if we will let them manifest and be used. If we reject the elements of control, we will have life on our hands without control and it is not so good. You have the little water pistol squirt—no power, no real meaning, no real value. As you stop imposing the arbitrary patterns of control, trying to force life to be thus and so, you will find that there is enough life so that you can afford to let it bubble. You are not going to be afraid if some of it gets away from you. You are not going to say, “I’ll contain it, I’ll use it, I’ll govern it so.” You diminish it and soon you do not have enough.

Take away the arbitrarily imposed controls by which you have thought to govern life in its manifestation and it will be like cleaning out the spring, the fountain, getting all the muck and the mire, and the chunks of rock, and everything else out of it and instead of just being a little trickle of muddy water that you try to do something with, it will begin to flow crystal clear water and if a little of it flows and overflows, all right—the cup of life is supposed to overflow. There is supposed to be enough so that you do not have to be niggardly with the use of life—you can let it flow; and you will begin to find that life always has its elements of control with it when it appears.

I wonder how your body was formed in the womb of your mother, when you could not be there pushing this imposition, imposing that, shaping the other, making it be just so—the forming of a body for the manifestation of a new life and you could not control it, you could not impose your own ideas, and make your nose long or short, and make your ears small or big, or something else. How in the world did your body ever get formed in your mother's womb? You were not there to impose control to make it be this or that. Of course, as soon as the babe is born, then we have to start imposing control, arbitrary methods, at once, instead of letting the control that is inherent with life have an easy natural expression.

I have heard parents say, “Well, I tried so hard with my children. I wanted them to be such good children. I tried so hard to make something out of them and they have disappointed me so. My son or my daughter they have disappointed me so. They haven't turned out so good. I'm ashamed.”—or something. Did you ever hear anyone talk like that? I wonder. They were going to make something out of them. God could not do it so they were going to do the job. It is the same thing all over again. They cannot reach inside the womb and say, “Now this is going to be a boy or a girl. It is going to have black or blonde hair. It is going to have a long nose or short, such and such lips, etc.” They are going to shape it all, are they? They cannot in the womb, and somehow God gets the job done and the body of the babe forms and there is control—there is life, but there is control and it takes such nice form and the baby is born, such a lovely little thing and it is all right there. The control has been working right along with the fountain expression of life, but immediately, God's methods are not any good on earth, after you are born. Immediately we start imposing, jamming, forcing—we are going to control life from birth on. How did your body ever get formed in the womb? Did you ever think about that and wonder? Isn't it a miracle that you were ever born when you were not there to shape your life before your birth? That is a miracle, indeed.

When you begin to realize that the control necessary for the expression of life comes with the Life, they are not separate packages, and you do not have to impose it from the outside—of course if human beings reject the real control, sometimes we have to impose a little from the outside. But what is the pattern of government here on Sunrise Ranch? A lot of rules and regulations? No. I never impose any rule or regulation unless I am forced to, unless human beings refuse to let the true governing force that comes with life manifest in relationship to their own lives. If they will not learn, sooner or later they will come under rule and regulation, and it will not be presented in uncertain terms, but you are given a chance to find out that the governing force appeared with life itself—it appears with life itself, and it takes time to learn to stop imposing that arbitrary control on the body and begin to let the control that God provides appear, because you should develop during childhood and adolescence and into maturity on the same basic control that was at work in the womb.

Oh there is a gradual unfolding of consciousness in the sense of awareness, yes, so that there can be a deeper understanding of letting that control have meaning. But why do people go to school? To get knowledge to store it in their minds so that they can arbitrarily impose control. They are going to study psychology, they are going to study this and that, and then they are going to impose control. They are going to control their own lives and they are going to control the lives of others, and have everything just right—and look at the just right patterns. Aren’t they a bit on the ugly side? Aren’t they a bit smeared, discolored, distorted? Where do you find them? You do not. With all the vaunted knowledge, no you do not. And the people come here, and they expect to learn on the same basis and when they find out it does not work, why they get troubled. They think I ought to teach on the same basis, to give some knowledge so that they can go out and impose it here and impose it there and get results.

I have had people say, “I can’t get hold of anything. What is the matter, is something wrong with me?” I have had people say there must be something wrong with me as a teacher—but you see, I play tricks on them. I do not let them get a hold of it in a way so that they can go according to their own bright ideas and impose it. They have to learn to let it work like the fountain or it does not turn out to be any good. It evaporates in their hands. The minute someone thinks he has gotten hold of something and he is going to go and use it, he gets to where he is going and he opens his hands and they are empty—gone! It does not work. There must be the fountain manifestation of life in relationship to the body, of thinking in relationship to the mind, and of love in relationship to the heart, and all of these things bring the control with them as they are born into the range of your perception—the control elements are present with them.

I have heard people say, “I try so hard to concentrate so I can meditate, but my mind leaps here and my mind leaps there, and I can’t think about any one subject for any length of time. It is all over the place.” Well of course. They have been trying to use the wrong method—man’s method instead of God’s method. God’s method is so easy, so natural, so right. When we begin to realize that the control elements are always present with the design elements—always, if it is coming from God—the control elements are always present with the design elements, and we will not try with our human minds or human wills to try to make something be—we are going to impose something!

Suppose I was going to give an attunement and I was going to use the power of my will to just make those cells fall into line—I’m just going to impose some control here and make you get well. You would not be here, would you, if I had been acting like that? You would have gone somewhere else long long ago—but I do not. When I give you an attunement, I know that the control factors are always present with the design factors in relationship to that which comes from God, whether it is life—I am opening up the fountain of life within you, helping you to learn to let it flow, so that you stop trying to impose some arbitrary government upon it. People say, “I like this and I don't like that”—well, I start helping you to learn that it is not like and dislike that governs. You learn to like something you thought you did not, and you learn to dislike some things you thought you did like so much—not to like it so much anyway.

Gradually we begin to change things—open up so the fountain can get through and so that you are not being arbitrary with the pattern of your life. You are beginning to learn to seek the Kingdom of God, the control of God which appears with all of those things which come from God. God does not give you life and say, “Now you control it.” Human beings have assumed that that is so, but it is not. It is a false concept. He does not give you a mind and say, “Now you control it,” or a heart and say, “Now you control it.” No.

What is it that is written about the tongue? An unruly member. And, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And the tongue says all kinds of things that it does not have any business saying—lack of control. If there is some ill condition—lack of control; if someone is sick—lack of control with respect to the manifestation of life. So you are going to come along and impose some control are you? No. Open the fountain, stop imposing control and let the fountain of life appear, and the control will come with life and everything begins to smooth out and is so easy. The Master said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light—and it is, it is so easy. Every other pattern of life or approach to existence is hard, but the right way is easy, and it takes a long time to convince people of that. They say, “Yes? Well maybe it is for you. Maybe it will be some day. Maybe it was some time in the past—but not for me. You don’t realize; you just don’t realize how hard life is for me, what burdens I have.”

As we begin to unfold and let the pattern of life appear, we find that the control comes with it, always. That which comes from God, which you can begin to see because of design, has with it the elements of control and you stop functioning from the standpoint of human weakness, human limitations, human inabilities to control. Man cannot even control a cell of his own body. By the controls which he imposes upon his body, he can destroy cells, but he cannot control cells. What is cancer? It is a situation where cells have gone wild; where cells have gone out from under the control that is natural—man cannot control them. He may try to destroy them and stop the development of the cancer, but if he were letting his cells be controlled in the true sense, there would not be any cancer. Cancer, actually, as such, is not a problem. They are spending millions of dollars trying to learn how to cure cancer. Well, I would not want cancer to be cured. We can just as well let it pass away. We do not need it, and if you cured it you would have it forever. People are always talking about curing disease—that is going to make it permanent, I guess. We are not interested in curing disease. We are interested in letting disease die, letting it pass away, letting it come to an end.

The control always comes with the design in relationship to that which comes from God, and if you learn to let that control have meaning, you will find that your mind has a wonderful part to play in the creative processes by which the beauty of life appears, by which the meaning of life is made known on earth, by which the Will of God is done on earth as it is in Heaven. And instead of an emptiness inside, we begin to have a richness in the mind and in the heart—the reality of love, the true working of intelligence and the wonder of life. Now with this little introduction to a vast subject, perhaps you will have something upon which to meditate in the interval. If you let the vibrational pattern hold, I will hope to move forward with this same subject tomorrow.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

The Holy Spirit Commands Absolute Adoration

The  Holy  Spirit  Commands  Absolute  Adoration

from  This Ministry

Martin Cecil   May 30, 1976

It is important that one should have vision with respect to anything that is undertaken. Where there is no vision the people perish. So, regardless of what it is that is being undertaken in any given aspect of the creative cycle, there necessarily should be vision which transcends the immediate matter at hand. This is true with respect to all aspects of our living. There are some details of living which human beings slide over at times, imagining that they have no particular significance. They only lack significance in that individual’s consciousness, not in fact, because, if an angel is present and acting on earth, every detail of that action is of a creative nature, is important, and relates to far more than the immediate point in question. 

There isn’t anything which may be undertaken—and we are constantly undertaking things in our daily living—which does not have ramifications of this nature. Where the vile attitudes of earthly orientation prevail human beings are inclined completely to overlook the responsibilities that are being carried and the effect, therefore, of their own behavior upon vast numbers of people. This relates to the matter of integrity, doesn’t it? A person of integrity is very keenly aware of his or her responsibility to his or her fellows—responsibility which can only be carried correctly when there is heavenly orientation. Therefore, on no account, at any time, for any reason, would there be a failure to maintain the essential heavenly orientation.

I spoke of the vile attitudes which are inevitable in earthly orientation. Now, there are a lot of apparently good people whose basic premise of living is earthly orientation. Their attitudes would not be considered to be vile; but if there is earthly orientation they are, in fact, vile. There is a constant betrayal of their fellows, quite apart from a constant violation of their own integrity. Those who begin to experience heavenly orientation may see these things, so that there is an absolute revulsion toward anything that smacks of earthly orientation.

When we come together in a service such as we share this morning heavenly orientation is emphasized. I’m sure it is emphasized in the consciousness of all concerned. In times past it has been said that when we come into the Chapel, to a service, the distorted patterns of human nature should be left outside. This, of course, is indication of what it is that should be present in the Chapel if we are to be gathered together with one accord in one place. But the fact of the matter is that if there are distorted patterns of human nature still present in you—when you come into the Chapel they can’t help but come in with you.

This was rather aptly described when it was said that the sons and daughters of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. In other words, Satan is always among those who come to present themselves before the Lord until Satan is no longer a factor in their expression of momentary living. If it is a factor in their momentary living, it will be a factor when they come into the Chapel. And while it may recede into the background for the moment because primary attention is being paid to spiritual things, it is still there. To the extent that it is still there, we cannot be with one accord in one place. If we cannot be with one accord in one place, there cannot be the experience of what has been described as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Such a description tends to engender human concepts. I am not talking about any conceivable human concept. I’m simply talking about the experience which is the natural event when there are those who are with one accord in one place. But it is absolutely impossible to be with one accord in one place as long as the distorted factors of human nature are retained in personal identity. While you may be encouraged to leave them outside the door when you come into the Chapel, you can’t, in fact, do it without staying outside the door yourself. This is a very important realization, because, regardless of what may have been achieved in the unfoldment of the creative process in which we have shared, there has never been an occasion when we were with one accord in one place. Never! That was simply impossible of experience, because the elements of distorted human nature were still present in the identity of the individual who was offering him- or herself to the Lord—Satan came also among them. And we know what havoc is wrought when Satan is allowed to have his say.

Now, usually he doesn’t have his say, very loudly at least, during the course of a service. There may be rumblings occasionally underneath. But he has his chance when those concerned leave the Chapel and return to their daily tasks. And he surely takes advantage of his chance. But as long as he is allowed to take advantage of his chance, then it is quite sure that never when we do gather, at least physically in one place, in the Chapel, will we be with one accord. Never! I have not emphasized this point as pointedly as I am doing it this morning—consequently there has been a tendency to imagine that there have been occasions when we have really been with one accord.

Possibly, in a relative sense, we have experienced more agreement than most people in their gatherings on earth. Perhaps Satan has been a little less assertive during the course of a service than is generally the case on such occasions in the world in general. But it has never been that, when the sons and daughters of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan didn’t also come among them. And he’s here this morning. No matter how earnestly you might have desired to leave him outside the door, you couldn’t do it and still be present in the Chapel.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit of life, characterized by love and truth—not characterized by anything other than love and truth. The word holy derives from the Old English, halig or hal, which is translatable as whole. I turned up the definition of holy in the dictionary this morning, and there is quite an extensive explanation in this regard, but I would read a portion of it: “holy—set apart to the service of God.” The Holy Spirit, then, would be the characteristic expression, totally, of God; nothing else included. Here is the second definition: “characterized by perfection and transcendence; commanding absolute adoration and reverence.” Does the Holy Spirit command absolute adoration and reverence in you, or are there other spirits which exert their commands, commands which you on occasion obey?

The Holy Spirit is absolute, completely whole; nothing else at all. The Holy Spirit is the true spirit of those who compose the reality of what we have called this ministry. There are those who have taken the attitude, of course, that they don’t belong in this ministry. This may be true in the sense that there have been some rather restricted concepts as to what this ministry really is. If it has been looked upon by some as a religious denomination or sect, then certainly everybody doesn’t belong in that—the fact of the matter is that nobody really belongs in that. But if it is seen for what it really is—all-encompassing, all-inclusive—then the fact is that everybody on the face of the earth really belongs in that ministry. There isn’t any other state in which human beings really belong.

It has been the fact of the matter that virtually the total population of mankind has excluded itself from the experience of the fact that they do belong. They have been busy trying to belong to this or that humanly established pattern, whether religious or otherwise, ignoring the real state in which everyone, in fact, belongs. If there is a realization of the true nature of this ministry, and a person says that he does not belong in that, he is saying, in effect, that he does not belong anywhere. And if one does not belong anywhere, and experiences the ultimate state of not belonging anywhere, what would that state be? It has been called death. The person who is dead proves that he does not belong anywhere.

One must be alive to belong somewhere. And the somewhere is describable by the words, this ministry. This ministry is all-inclusive. I’m not talking about a human organization. I’m talking about a state in which human beings really belong, in which they are men and women created by God in the image and likeness of God—that is, the true state. And we can describe it by using words, this ministry.

To describe these things, we have to use words, and these words are very pointed. Perhaps we wouldn’t say these things in a general sense, because most people couldn’t understand. But surely you do. If you feel yourself, at any time, being pushed out, so to speak, you may know exactly why. No one can be pushed out of this ministry against his will. No one is ever excluded. Insofar as the truth of the matter is concerned, everybody is included. If a person insists upon a sense of exclusion, that is that person’s choice. It wasn’t imposed by anyone else, anywhere, at any time. It may have seemed so, if there has been earthly orientation. In earthly orientation the individual can always justify his position; but in earthly orientation it is a false state and what is seen in that state is not true.

The Holy Spirit commands absolute adoration and reverence. This means that the distorted state of human nature has been set aside. But if you try to set aside the distorted state of human nature when you come in through the door into the Chapel, it can’t be done. That set-aside condition is still present with you; it’s a part of what you claim as your identity in your expression of existence. If there is anything that you have to set aside in order, as you think, to come into the Chapel pure and holy, you can’t come into the Chapel in the moments of the expression of your living. You know that it’s gone when the moments of the expression of your living prove it. If there is no proof there, it hasn’t gone. Or if the proof is inconsistent, it hasn’t gone. Inconsistency in this regard proves earthly orientation. Heavenly orientation is characterized by consistency.

If you can slip back into earthly orientation, you don’t know what heavenly orientation is, because if there is heavenly orientation, you can’t slip back into earthly orientation. You’re still just thinking about it or hoping or dedicated, if you can still slip back into earthly orientation. Heavenly orientation is absolute in its nature, and when we know the Holy Spirit of Life we know it; we don’t know anything else. If we know something else, we don’t know the Holy Spirit of Life, because it is whole—it is absolute, it is complete.

We may say, “Oh, well, I touched it.” And remarkable things happen when people touch it, yes. There was a story of the woman with the affliction who touched the hem of the Master’s garment. Marvelous! But what happened to her later, I wonder? No further comment. I doubt if she was consistent. One can be fooled by the wonderful experiences that are known simply because something was touched. If that experience comes because you touched something, what you touched is not yet your experience; it’s separate and apart from you—it must be, for you to touch it. When the truth is known, that’s all that is known; you’re not touching anything. You are that truth in the expression of your living, and you cannot be anything else.

We have so often spoken of absoluteness; but it has been approached rather gently, I think, so that those who heard were not overwhelmed. But there must come a point somewhere along the way where we may say, “That’s it!” If that point never comes, well, we could say that’s it in another way too. How human beings love to justify their ill states, justify the things which they may say need clearing. What is it that needs clearing? One thing and one thing alone: earthly orientation. And that can only be cleared by the experience of heavenly orientation. One can’t manipulate things in earthly orientation to experience what would be experienced in heavenly orientation. There must be the genuine article, heavenly orientation, in one’s own experience, to know what it is.

There have been a great many views about heavenly orientation from the standpoint of earthly orientation. The individual, firmly planted in earthly orientation, is considering heavenly orientation, and one day “I’m making progress.” In what? Well, in earthly orientation, I suppose; shifts occurring in earthly orientation. Some of them look good. But heavenly orientation is not earthly orientation; there’s no similarity even. It is a thing of itself, absolutely. Everyone belongs in heavenly orientation or, to put it another way, in this ministry—because this ministry is the state of heavenly orientation, if it is anything. If it isn’t that, it is nothing. And if there are those who merely observe from the standpoint of earthly orientation, this ministry is, in fact, nothing to them. The state of heavenly orientation remains nothing to those who are experiencing earthly orientation. It may be a concept of the mind, but that is nothing.

Let us not delude ourselves in these matters. Satan is a word that has been used to describe a very wily character who has successfully deluded and deceived human beings for millennia. That’s right, he’s done it. And Satan’s as good a name as any to describe the character of human beings in earthly orientation. In that state human beings can fool themselves, and have fooled themselves, constantly. Thus far, very few who lived on earth ever came out of the state of deception. But now we’d better do it. We’d better be willing to do it, and we’d better be willing to stop fooling ourselves, to stop deliberately maintaining the state of earthly orientation because we are absolutely centered in the Holy Spirit.

“Out of Egypt have I called my son.” These words, O Lord, we may remember this morning. It is our great privilege to have sufficient vision to see beyond the state of self-delusion in which human beings have existed ever since they denied and betrayed Thee. So would we accept the reality of integrity, that there may be no shadow of turning, no continuing insistence upon wallowing in the various states consequent upon earthly orientation, while occasionally rising so that our heads are above this morass. When we do rise to this extent, we recognize that there is another state; but until that other state, which is a consistent state, is accepted, we do not really know what it is.

How thankful we are, O Lord, for the assurance of the strength and stability of Thy Holy Spirit, by which we may be held steady and sure in the expression of Life on earth, to Thy glory, in the Christ. Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts. Glory be to Thee, O Lord most high.

© Emisaries of Divine Light