Hosts of Heaven and Hosts of Earth

from

Hosts  of  Heaven  and  Hosts  of  Earth

Martin Cecil   December 24, 1978

Our gathering this morning follows the Music Service which we shared in this same Chapel last evening. This was a Service, or at least the opportunity of serving, in a particular way. Some were inclined to take the attitude that it was a concert but this would be an interpretation by the mind on the basis of some already existing structures of consciousness. We need to be able to see things freshly so that we do not lay upon our experiences what we have known out of the past. If we impose upon our momentary experience the forms that are already present in our consciousness then the newness of what properly should come forth is prevented. The tendency then is to keep going around in a more or less meaningless circle. This has happened of course in human experience in every field. Is there not something new to be brought forth by the spirit in this hour, and in each moment, as we move together?

So the gathering here in the Chapel last evening was not to share a concert but to participate in a Service. We all had our proper roles to play in this. But what was experienced yesterday evening was properly describable as a Service. We use that word because it is a matter of serving. We have the constant responsibility of serving, serving in the sense that as angels we are incarnate on earth for a particular purpose in serving our Lord and King—who is not here in person. We have the responsibility of assuming the position of representing Him and consequently of doing whatever it is that is necessary to achieve the purpose for which we have been commissioned. This relates not only to such occasions as the present one, or the one last night, but concerns every aspect of our living constantly. There is no moment, rightly, when we cease to be who we are. If we really did cease to be who we are we wouldn’t be here anymore; but we may forget at times, I suppose, in the human state of consciousness, thereby obscuring the reason for our presence on earth.

If we are alert in spiritual expression then there is spiritual discernment and we do not translate, or interpret, what is occurring in human nature terms, in the terms of the structures that are already present in human consciousness. So we would not interpret an occasion such as occurred last evening as a concert, for instance. This is a structure of human consciousness which rather firmly prevents what is supposed to be happening from the angelic standpoint from doing so. We tend to try to channel what is happening into the old forms of this structured state of consciousness. If we do that then we are responsible for preventing any adequate fulfilment of what might have taken place.

Of course there are occasions when maybe it is wise that, mentally speaking, we do not know exactly what it is that is happening, because if we did begin to understand, mentally speaking, we might interfere with it. So there are many occasions when from the mental standpoint we do not know really what is going on, and that is fortunate. But if we do not know what is going on, let’s not lay on it some interpretation which we have gleaned out of the past. Let’s let it be free. Let us be willing to admit that we don’t know what is going on, therefore we do not wish to encase it in some structured concept or other, trying to figure it out, because it is none of the mind’s business anyway. But as there is the development of spiritual discernment because there is an increasing consistency of spiritual expression in our living, then we do perceive something of what is occurring. It is unlikely that at this point we will perceive all that is occurring, or all that might occur, but we may see something.

For instance, last evening, as I say, we participated rightly in a Service, a Service which was brought to focus by reason of musical expression. The music was in some respects incidental. Now that is a terrible thing, I suppose, to say in the hearing of those who sang and performed on their instruments, because they had worked at it over quite a period of time. To have it all swept away in a moment by saying that it was altogether incidental might engender in human nature consciousness some disappointment. However this is not so if there was any real recognition of what was happening, for the choir and the instrumentalists provided a particular pattern of representation, just as those who were in the audience or the congregation also provided a particular pattern of representation.

The representation from the standpoint of the performers might be described in terms of the Hosts of Heaven. Here was a small body of human beings on earth in the position of providing representation for the invisible Hosts of Heaven, these Hosts being made visible by reason of this representation. On this basis then, something heavenly could be brought into form and expression on earth. It was done in a special configuration by reason of those who were also present in the Chapel as the audience or congregation. Here was another pattern of representation. The representation could be said to be the Hosts of Earth. The Hosts of Earth include the body of mankind as a whole but actually go beyond that—there is more on the face of this earth than human beings. But in any case here are two patterns of representation, brought to focus by reason of those who were actually present in the Chapel last evening—the Hosts of Heaven on the one hand, and the Hosts of Earth on the other.

We are well aware of the fact that heaven and earth have been separated in human consciousness. There has been a veil between. Our concern is to let that veil be dissolved so that the truth might be known. The truth is that heaven and earth are one, and so in this pattern of representation the Hosts of Heaven were brought to the Hosts of Earth. Because of such consciousness of these things which may have been present in those concerned, the blending of the two might take place. That blending of course would be a revelation of the fact that there was no veil between heaven and earth actually: heaven and earth are indeed one. Here was an opportunity of experiencing this truth and to some extent it was experienced. Maybe most didn’t see it that way, mentally speaking, but from the standpoint of the experience itself there was a certain blending between those who were onstage and those who were in the body of the audience. It wasn’t as though the audience was separated from what was going on on the stage. There was participation on the part of both aspects on the basis of the roles that were being played.

Representation of the Hosts of Heaven is properly a representation of something that is absolute. This could be correlated with what is describable as clear radiation—undistorted, clear radiation. I am sure those who did play a part in these roles on the stage had in mind something of the necessity of providing a perfect performance. However, what would a perfect performance be? The mind doesn’t really know. It has an ideal in concept perhaps but this certainly is not the truth. It is simply a mental idea of what should be offered. Sometimes when there are performances of this nature in the world that we know, it may be indicated as being a very polished performance. This presumably means that it conforms pretty well to the ideals somebody had in mind. The mere fact of a polished performance does not indicate that it is what it should be. It merely indicates that it conforms to some idea somebody has as to what it should be. And of course there has, over the years, been the building up of structures of various sorts which are supposed to define the nature of excellence in these various fields. When a performance comes along in the world these structures tend to be imposed in order to produce a polished performance. But what would the spirit bring forth? This has very little to do with the ideal that may be present in the human mind, because there are many factors to be taken into account of which the human mind is totally ignorant.

If we see the situation as it was last night, where there was a representation of the Hosts of Earth, then obviously we are keenly aware of the fact that insofar as the Hosts of Earth are concerned there are a multitude of distortions present. The state of affairs in the world is not the way it should be. The condition of human consciousness is not the way it should be. Of course the responsibility of the audience, the congregation, last evening, was not to bring to focus all the things that should not be. The responsibility was to provide a representation of what might well be described as response—response upward. We rejoice that there is something in this regard to be represented but I am sure we are very well aware, not only from the standpoint of our observation of others but because of our own experience, of the inadequacy of response upward insofar as the human state of consciousness is concerned. So what might be described as the perfect response is not really available to be represented, is it? All that can be represented is what the fact is, and that fact is far from what it ultimately must be; nevertheless it is the fact and we can only deal sensibly when we deal with the facts.

So there was last evening, from the standpoint of the representation of the Hosts of Earth, a representation of something that was somewhat inadequate. The responsibility of those who represent the Hosts of Heaven is to handle that inadequacy, recognizing the facts as adequately as may be possible. This produces an interesting situation because what are called mistakes may come into the picture. If a performer makes a mistake, that may seem to ruin a polished performance; but if a polished performance is not what is required it hasn’t ruined anything. I am not suggesting a casual attitude on the part of those who are offering, in song or on their instruments, as to what should appear. Of course the greatest care is taken to allow the spirit to bring forth something beautiful and something right, but there are other factors which are impinging upon the situation when we are functioning in service. Our purpose is Service—not to produce a polished performance—to bring forth nevertheless what is fitting, what is right, in handling the focus of the Hosts of Earth in the representation which is actually present. In handling this it may seem as though a mistake is made, but the basis for assuming that a mistake is made is the human concept of what should have appeared; whereas the human concept of what should have appeared is based in ignorance. It is based in non-perception of what the facts actually are.

I am not suggesting that, as I say, there should be a casual attitude on the part of those who perform. They are seeking to allow the greatest possible expression of the spirit in action, accurately; but what that greatest possible expression will be is found out on the occasion. It cannot be known beforehand and it cannot rightly be judged in the moment of experience, nor on the basis of some sort of postmortem, where people say, “Well, you should have done this. If you had done the other thing, then you should have done this.” Well there may be something to be learned from the standpoint of developing more efficient facilities to permit a greater expression of spirit but the expression of spirit always fits the situation—the facts that are present. It is not an arbitrary thing.

Some seem to imagine that if there was the true expression of the Lord on earth it would just appear, regardless of human beings, bang into the middle of everything! Well if it did that I doubt if there would be many human beings left, and God is not willing that any should perish. We have to choose to perish. It is not God’s will. So He doesn’t come on in that way. He seeks to develop a facility on earth which He may use to deal with the facts as they are, not according to some human ideal—and we share Services on this basis, whether a Musical Service or a Service such as this, or any other. We are responsible for handling the facts as they are. We see clearly enough that perfection is an ongoing thing and that it relates to circumstances as they are—it relates to the facts the way they are.

We find ourselves playing various roles continuously, roles which are in representation of the Hosts of Heaven and roles which are in representation of the Hosts of Earth. We all have this dual responsibility. But insofar as particular configurations of angels are concerned, then certain specific roles come into the picture, just as they did last evening—the representation, on the one hand, of the Hosts of Heaven, and on the other hand, of the Hosts of Earth. Where there is spiritual perception we discern these things, not merely in hindsight. Certainly if we look at these things now it is simply to make us more keenly alert spiritually speaking. We cannot go back to last evening and do it all over again.

If we can begin to see that a circumstance such as was present last evening in the Chapel here provides a means of particular Service, we may see that there is not a moment in our daily living that does not also provide a means of service. If we have accepted the responsibility of angelic expression on earth we do not do it on the basis of a forty-hour week. We do not do it on the basis of nine-to-five. No, from the standpoint of our service as angels on earth—which is Service to the Lord, incidentally—we are serving Him—we are serving Him in the achievement of His purposes on earth. So we are concerned with those purposes and we are alert in our momentary experience spiritually speaking, and we are not translating everything on the basis of already established mental concepts. We do not interpret all our experiences as though they were simply a repeat of what was already present in the structured human nature state of consciousness. How could anything new possibly come forth on that basis? It is remarkable how much has been allowed to come forth in our own experience spiritually speaking, in spite of the fact that there was a constant tendency to bind it up in the graveclothes of prior structures of consciousness, instead of letting it be born as something that was fresh and new and had never before put in an appearance.

So in our momentary living we have this same responsibility. If it isn’t an ongoing experience, which leads up to the point of the Service and continues thereafter, there is no basis for anything to happen at the Service. We share this ongoing experience rightly. Moving together, one of the elements related to such spiritual discernment as may be developed is the generation of spiritual substance, spiritual substance which is describable in other ways. It has been described in various ways in the Bible for instance. There is a passage here in the Book of Revelation: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” How does a wife make herself ready? By covering herself with structures of various sorts? We have just been speaking about the dissolution of such structures so that the spirit may bring forth what is fitting in the moment. Then the form which clothes the spirit is what should clothe the spirit at that point on the basis of the situation as it factually is. The bride here of course relates to this matter of the form of things. It relates to what is represented of the Hosts of Earth in the way of response. There is a yielding of this to what represents the Hosts of Heaven, so that there may be a blending and the transformation that is required in the Hosts of Earth may be set in motion and maintained in motion.

“For the marriage of the Lamb is come.” This is the blending— the experience of the fact that heaven and earth are one. This needs to be experienced individually because we are accepting the responsibility of angels incarnate and in expression on earth, and also collectively in the various collective configurations that properly put in an appearance. “The marriage of the Lamb is come,” the blending of that which represents the Hosts of Heaven with that which represents the Hosts of Earth. We are in position to experience this, aren’t we? Who else is? We have been moving toward this experience and have known something of it for quite some time, but there needs to be a vivid consciousness of the fact that we do serve as angels and that we cannot take even a moment off from serving.

“And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.’’ A saint is in evidence when the angel is in expression through human form. Then what emerges on that basis is describable as a saint but it certainly doesn’t conform with the human concept of a saint. A saint is not a dead person! Saints refer to living people, not dead people, and it doesn’t require any human mind to determine as to whether a saint is on hand or not. The human mind doesn’t know. When the angel is in clear expression through human form on earth, that is the condition of a saint, and it is a very practical, down-to-earth, sensible sort of thing. It handles things, it is capable of handling things, the way they are, the factual state. Saints are right here on earth doing what is needed to be done, but they are doing it consistently—not an on-again, off-again thing. They are clothed with fine linen. This is the spiritual substance which is the righteousness of saints, which is present by reason of the fact that there has been the expression of right living—right living in the circumstances the way they are; not trying to live rightly in some supposed Edenic state but right living with respect to the circumstances the way they are now. When there is such right-use-ness of everything, there is the clothing, the generation of the substance, described here as fine linen, clean and white. This is the true spiritual substance, isn’t it, uncontaminated.

“For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” It is based in right living. Here is what is offered to enable the spirit of God to find right expression, both in the individual circumstance and collectively speaking in the world. There is something much more than our individual affairs for which we are responsible. We have something of a consciousness of a Body. We may speak of this at times in terms of a family but it is in fact a Body; the Body of the Archangel has been one description. And always, regardless of individual responsibilities in the immediate sense, there is primary concern for this Body as a whole.

So we share the responsibility of doing it—on the basis of the fact that there is an angel in expression in our momentary living consistently. We do not require anyone to make us ourselves. We are ourselves and when we give expression to ourselves in that angelic sense we know it. We don’t need anyone to explain it to us. We don’t need anyone to keep us toeing the mark, because the mark, when it seems that we are required to toe it, is simply a human endeavor. It has nothing to do with the angelic expression. There is no consideration given to toeing any marks. One just simply reveals the expression that is natural to oneself as an angel—that’s all. One doesn’t have to be prodded into that expression. One doesn’t have to be inspired somehow. It is the natural experience when it is accepted. When it is accepted the human nature condition of our consciousness no longer is permitted to go off on its own. So we share this matter of responsibility in Service constantly and are willing to experience that greater spiritual discernment in our human consciousness that makes us aware of the nature of the Service that is natural to us in any given moment, in any given situation, in any given configuration of association with other angels. We are very capable of doing what is required in this regard, as there is an acceptance of the natural responsibility of being oneself.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Basic Principles in the Pattern of God Being

Basic  Principles  in  the  Pattern  of  God  Being

from  Moses  and  Jethro

Uranda   May 6, 1953  Class

Perhaps we might give a moment to some of the basic principles at work in the pattern of God Being, in order to clarify the understanding with respect to the things we have to learn. The pattern of Divine action is always revealed on the basis of the principles at work in the invisible Body of God in relationship to focalization. Man has suffered these thousands of years of misery, sorrow and death, because of his refusal to accept the reality of focalization. The Principles of Focalization should be clearly established in consciousness, and it is only as you function in harmony with the Principles of Focalization that you can possibly achieve that to which you are called, accomplish that for which you came into the world.

Every God Being has within himself or herself the primary factors that are present in all other God Beings. While basically speaking all primary factors are present in all God Beings, we see that with respect to any God Being some primary factor must be dominantly supplied on the basis of focalization in order to give meaning to that factor in other people, to emphasize it and let it be activated. You cannot activate without two or more people. There has to be a positive and a negative pole. The individual who is isolated has no meaning regardless of his potentialities; he has no immediate meaning, and it is only what he does in relationship to others that gives his life meaning. If you take the position that focalizations are not necessary, then you take the position that you refuse to be a focalization, and anyone who refuses to be a focalization denies the potentiality of his own Being. You cannot deny the Principle of Focalization in relationship to someone else and accept it for yourself.

Now we will consider the LORD of Lords for a moment. He has within Him, as the Apex of Deity insofar as we are concerned, all of the aspects of Being—Love, Truth, Life, everything; capacity, quality, comprehension, ability. But segregate Him from His position in the vibrational sense and while He would have some particularized potential that others might not have, He would at once become meaningless, because the meaning that the LORD of Lords has is the meaning that the other God Beings give him. He was selected for that place because of the particular factors involved in His own Being. His particular qualifications for the job—because all of those God Beings who were to be focalized in Him agreed and accepted, and because it was agreed and accepted from the actual manifestation of His potential—could not appear until the other God Beings gave it to Him. He did not have it of Himself. He had the qualities necessary to the doing of the job, yes; but if He was going to be a focalization, the meaning of that focalization was established by those who were focalized—not by Himself.

Now there are other focalizations in the Cosmic scheme of things—every person, everywhere, is supposed to be a focalization factor, in several respects, in fact. And every God Being is a focalization factor, or provides it. But once we begin to see that the Principle of Focalization must be accepted and, in principle at least, comprehended before we can understand the principles of right function, of letting the Father do the works, so that the human mind and heart are not constantly getting in the way and spoiling it.

We recognize that the LORD of Lords, whom we speak of as the Lord of Love, contains within His Being the factors of Truth and Life, and so-on. But the Central Core of all things is Love. The Central Core of the Spirit of God, the Force of Being—all things that are—in fact, is what we speak of as Divine Love. Then the individual who is going to provide the overall focalization must be the Focalization of Love. That means that the dominant factor in His Being, in the expression and function of Himself, must be Love. Everything else is present, yes, all of it; but the dominant factor is Love and His dominant function in relationship to all God Beings then, is on the basis of the Core of Being—Love.

Now that means that if we took all of these God Beings and segregated them somehow, separated them vibrationally speaking, the capacity they have in the presence of the reality of Love would be virtually meaningless. But once we have a Focalization Point and all of these God Beings let their Love be centered in the Point of Center, it is multiplied and increased and intensified at Center until there is a positive point in relationship to all God Beings, and the value and the meaning of every God Being is increased because of it. In other words, their love can begin to mean something. Without that focalization, their love would mean nothing. They would all have some love, they would all have a capacity of love, they would all have all the basic factors, but if some God Being tried to function without regard to that focalization, his basic factors would immediately become meaningless, of no value—he could not accomplish anything in a creative sense. The only way there can be true creative expression at any time, under any circumstance, is by reason of Focalization. Then we can take the same principle in relationship to Truth. There must be a Focalization of the Body of Love—which is Truth. That Point of Focalization must accept the overall or the dominant Point of Focalization, the LORD of Lords, and be His servant, be subject to Him, be completely responsive to Him. But someone has to have the responsibility of maintaining the dominant factor of Truth as such; not the dominant factor of Love—that is already taken care of. Now we are considering the dominant factor of Truth.

The Truth aspect that is present in individuals can have meaning and have expression as the individual God Beings—or human beings, inner or outer—accept the reality of focalization. If they reject the reality of focalization they reject their own capacity to function in Truth, and they will always, as twenty thousand years of history proves, go off on tangents, have false concepts, and spoil the pattern of their lives. The only way that Truth, in any human being, can mean anything is for that human being to function on the basis of the focalization. That includes the Point of Focalization itself, because whether it is the Point of Focalization or some other part in the Body of Truth, only by reason of focalization can the Truth in any God Being or any human being, have any meaning, any control.

Why did human beings lose dominion? God created man in the beginning to have dominion over the earth—not over Heaven. Man is supposed to have dominion over the earth and all the things that are therein. Man does not have that dominion. He has worked for thousands of years to try to produce a substitute control. Man is rather proud of himself in some respects, on that point, but all we have to do is look at the world pattern and see that it is not even a start; not a beginning. Why? Because human beings have refused to bring their capacities to function in Truth into the pattern of the Focalization of Truth.

Now if we recognize the Focalization of Love, for instance, does that mean that the Focalization of Love is the only one that can have any Love or know any Love? No. The fact of focalization makes it possible for everyone in the focalization to have more Love and to let that Love have some real meaning so that it can be a Creative Fire and accomplish that which it is supposed to. The focalization does not ever, under any circumstance, take anything away from those focalized, but adds to them because of the reality of the overall pattern that is focalized. It is not because the Point of Focalization has it all, but because once that Point of Focalization is established and accepted vibrationally, from the standpoint of the God Beings, it does not make any difference whether human beings accept it or not, it is not going to change the Point of Focalization. If God established it, man cannot change it no matter what he does. The thing for man to do then, is to accept what God has established, the Points of Focalization as well as the other factors involved.

So the very fact that we have a Focalization of the Core in the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings, makes it possible for us to know the working of Love as we could not possibly know it if we tried, each one, to be the whole cheese—nothing to back each other up, nothing to really give each other support, provide control. Truth contains the control and the design factors. And until man accepts the Pattern of Focalization, a centering through Love, and the control and design factors through Truth, he cannot Live—because we have recognized that it is the union of Love and Truth that makes the reality of Life. Life appears where Love and Truth have union, individually, collectively, in the overall ? And so the union, the oneness, the coordination, however you want to put it, of the Focalizations of Love and Truth, must be a reality, so that the control factors are available in the vibrational sense.

Once they are available in the vibrational sense, man can share them. Man cannot produce them, he cannot change the Divine Pattern. He can refuse to accept it and go empty through his period of existence or he can accept it and share all of the things of Heaven—he can begin to let the Ordinances of Heaven be established in the earth. And until we begin to recognize that acceptance of the Focalization of Love makes it possible for you to use your capacity of Love to the full, and the manifestation of Love through you then begins to be what God intended it to be. And the acceptance of the Focalization of Truth allows the Truth to manifest through you according to your capacity and place of function, service, and it is that which gives us coordination, it is that which allows us to support each other—it is that which makes possible the manifestation of the immovable object through which the irresistible force is operating. You see, in reality—and that is the only place where there is an immovable object and an irresistible force—in reality the irresistible force and the immovable object are never at cross-purposes; they always work together, for the irresistible force works through the immovable object, the only one there is, and that immovable object is established upon the patterns of support, coordination, unification, symbolized by the triangle, and it is because of the Creative Triangle that man has a three-phased Pattern of Being.

The person who tries to be everything all by himself is revealing his own weakness and determining the fact that he is going to continue to be weak; for we can be strong only in relationship to each other, and if we are going to be in relationship to each other there must be a design, there must be an Organized Pattern in order for it to have any meaning, and the Organized Pattern, the design, is contained in Truth and the Truth of the Creative Triangle, the Truth of Focalization—all the factors that are involved. Once we begin to see that the Focalization of Love and the Focalization of Truth make possible the manifestation of the Focalization of Life, we begin to see the Creative Triangle in relationship to the three Points of Being and then, once we begin to recognize those Points of Focalization and function in relationship to them, we can begin to let our capacities be used the way they should. There begins to be a control pattern. We begin to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, the control pattern and the design that is at hand. The Ordinances of Heaven begin to be established and set in the earth in relationship to us, and because of the fact that all who are functioning in relationship to Truth are backing us up in our function, we begin to have meaning.

The Focalization at the Point of the Apex of the Triangle can have no meaning unless he is backed up by response. But all of this that is so focalized, if you are a part of it, is likewise focalized in you in the expression of your life, and you are not working alone and independently. You are a part of the Whole and that point which you bring to focus is the point backed up by the whole thing, complete, so that the expression of Truth through you, for instance, or Love, manifests in relationship to what you need to do with the Whole Force of God behind it, and the Whole Force of all the human beings on earth who share the pattern. But if you think you can become a focalization for the working of God’s Love and Truth without accepting the Focalizations of Love and Truth, you are wrong. This is the reason why there has been twenty thousand years of misery and suffering and sorrow. Man has not learned, not just to accept, but to eagerly welcome the Reality of Focalization so that he can begin to share in the creative works of God and be a Focalization in expression and manifestation of that which he shares according to his or her own proper Life Pattern. Once that is seen, you begin to know what it is you are supposed to conform with, conform to—the vibrational pattern is established in the Heavenly realms, and you cannot change it. If you do not like it, it is just too bad. It is not going to be changed to suit your whim or fancy. Millions of people have died trying to change it, but they have not succeeded. So the best thing to do is to accept it the way it is, the way God made it. There is plenty of evidence that it is so, plenty of Truth to support the fact that can be readily comprehended, and if you are going to let increased power manifest through you in any level of life, it must be because you are sharing the responsibilities and the functions of Focalization, and without them you cannot be what you ought to be.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

Look To The Angel

Look  To  The  Angel

from  Spontaneous Creation #2

Martin Cecil   September 30, 1973

A little while back I wrote a brief article that Grace typed up for me just the other day, and I thought I would share this with you this evening at the beginning of our service. It may be used perhaps as a small booklet or a leaflet, but it relates very much to what we were considering this morning. It is entitled Whence Are You? and starts with a quotation from the 8th Psalm, somewhat abbreviated.

“What is man…? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels…”

Personally I feel a closer kinship with the angels than I do with an ancestry reaching back into the primeval slime. How about you? Whatever the fact may seem to be with respect to human heredity, a potential which transcends the earthy condition is inherently sensed by anyone of integrity. From whence does this assurance come? It certainly is of much more immediate impact than speculation about an amoebic forebear! Would it be less scientific to listen to the voice of this intuition than to trust the laborious processes of human thought tracing the speculative contradictions of circumstantial evidence?

What is man? The sad consequence of senseless chance? The most complex organism and therefore the highest form of life mysteriously evolved out of more elementary states of living matter? Or could the fact of his presence on earth stem from a higher rather than a lower source? How about looking up for the answer instead of down?

What is up? Well, down in this context is toward ancestral yesterdays. It is toward what appear to be earthly derivations. Such a view purports to see a chain of events leading out of the vast chasm of the past and proceeding into the ever receding unknown of the future. The downward view is sustained by the endless acquisition of knowledge about the time-oriented phenomenal world.

The upward view, on the contrary, calls to remembrance the eternal nature of the present moment and the higher cause of what now is. That there is such a present cause is proclaimed by one's sense of transcendent potential: "I am now a person akin to the angels! I may not yet have realized all my potential but I inherently know that it is here to be realized."

So much attention is paid to the appearance of things, to pleasures and pains, to the experience of the past and the expectations of the future—in other words, to what is lower—that the transcendent angel vanishes from view. There ain't no such animal! is the skeptical view. But a person is finally dead inside himself when he has lost consciousness of his own potential of greatness—his sense of kinship with the angels. Is it any wonder that such an one hastens into the dust from whence his only feeling of affinity arises? What desolation! What betrayal of oneself!

And yet virtually all human experience constrains toward this violation of integrity. Science teaches it. Believe only what you can see and touch and measure. Here is the real world; here are the true values; look down and you will go up. How ridiculous!

But the angel is present, encompassing all that is of real value in human experience. Such true values cannot in fact be inherited from the past or acquired out of the world. They spring only from a higher source. When a person is the expression of the angel of himself he knows his value and gives value to his world. Because he lives out of what is higher than himself, he engenders transformation in what is lower. This is the creative art of living. Here is happiness. Look to the angel!

The apparent origins of my earthly self enslave me. If this is all that I can be, what hopelessness engulfs me. I am no more than the bauble of capricious chance. Look to the angel! Loud and clear I hear that silent invitation—an irresistible compulsion beyond the call of ancestry and worldly circumstance. Look to the angel!

Who is the angel? And where? Nowhere, insists blind prejudice. Now here, the upward view assures. The angel is now where I am. Therefore am I not the angel? rather than mere human flesh dedicated to this short-lived state of drear mortality.

Man is made a little lower than the angels, that the angels may walk on earth in human form. This angel in this human form. I am the angel! Let this living form proclaim the truth, no longer obedient in hopeless subjugation to decaying dust. I am the angel. I am from above. Whence are you?

Are you merely of the earth earthy? Or are you the angel alive on earth in a body of flesh? Shall the heredity of the flesh dictate your apparent worth or lack of it? Or is your real meaning inherent in the angel? Are you from above or are you from below?

If you insist that you are from below your destiny is death. Dust to dust! When you know that you are from above, then you are alive forevermore. Consciousness-endowed flesh bodies, called man, are made a little lower than the angels. Without the angel man is dust. The angel is the life of man. To deny the angel is death. To express the character of the angel is life. What you express you know—death from below; life from above. Whence are you?

When man is a living soul the angel is incarnate on earth in human form. The concern is to allow this transformation from a dying soul to a living soul to occur. The living soul was created by the Lord God; the dying soul is the result of human failure. How is the change to be wrought?

We have recognized that man was created in the beginning on a spontaneous basis. Man is a spontaneous creation. Because this is true, man can be recreated spontaneously. If man was not created spontaneously in the beginning it would be impossible for him to be recreated spontaneously now. This is why it is important that the fanciful concept of evolution should be seen for what it is. As long as the mind of man can keep human beings involved with this theory as though it were true it is impossible for the human being to experience spontaneous re-creation. The re-creation takes place by reason of a willingness on the part of man. In this regard it may be said that the original creation was easier than the re-creation is, because in the original there was no one to object; so the process worked out smoothly, as it does in all the creative cycles wherever they may appear in the whole cosmos. But now we have a conscientious objector on hand who does not wish to experience the re-creation. Human attitudes have been characterized by this unwillingness. This unwillingness is not merely consequent upon the more or less superficial patterns of self-centeredness that have been acquired by the individual during his sojourn thus far on earth. These superficial patterns relate to a person's experiences along the way right from the point of conception on. It is recognized that much of human nature springs from what was known in early childhood. However, all this is rather superficial.

Those who have been associated with this ministry for any time come to realize the necessity of not being governed by their feelings, so that they may begin to be governed by the spirit of God, by the irresistible force, by the Lord God who is the Creator, and in this case the Re-Creator. So something has been done in this regard. There has been an awareness of the necessity of not reacting, and so care has been taken. But here is the more or less superficial evident peak of the iceberg. There is far more underneath the surface of the water, and what is in the deeper depths relates to something that in a sense is further distant from the individual. It relates to what we might call race memory; it relates to states of consciousness that have been persisted in for millennia by human beings and have been built into this mass consciousness of which each individual partakes. Now all this has to be cleared if the re-creation to the state of man is to occur.

Now,  it would be foolish to expect the human mind to do it. To start with, it doesn't know what is down in those depths, and even if it did know, it wouldn't know what to do about it. So it is not a matter of the intellect. In fact it is the human mind as such that has stood in the way—the conscious mind particularly—of allowing anything to happen. The re-creation must take place on the basis of human willingness. It's not something that can be imposed. This spontaneous re-creation comes because there are those who are willing that it should. However, if a person is all hung up with these deep fears and shame which are present subconsciously, so that these emerge to haunt him in his daily experience of living, then he remains caught in the unregenerate state, the state of self-centeredness, and there is no way by which the spontaneous re-creation may occur. Obviously, then, there is the need to develop an open willingness in attitude which is content to allow all the stuff to pass away, to relinquish all the fears and all the shame.

To engender that willingness there is the necessity to trust in God. Here we have the requirement of a complete letting go, something that in the human state there has been such a deep fear about that there has been an unwillingness that it should be so. Obviously, then, trust has to be engendered. That trust is not likely to be engendered merely in some invisible God somewhere in whom we are supposed to believe. This should be obvious enough, because there has been a very long time in human history when the opportunity was open for human beings to believe in God and consequently to trust Him. But God was always an invisible God, a hidden God, and for the most part association with God seemed necessarily to be through whatever type of priesthood might be available. But the whole human pattern of things was involved in subjugation to the self-centered state, including the priesthood.

No matter how good the intentions may have seemed to be, the behavior, the actions, of those concerned always derived from below rather than from above, because the controlling influence came from that direction. However, if adequate trust in God is to be generated there must be a means by which God can be known within the range of human awareness, so that He is no longer merely an invisible God. Now of course this relates to the fact of a true Priesthood, a Priesthood that is no longer subject to what is below, whose function in life, whose expression in all the ways of living, is not merely a result of what is contained in this mass consciousness of the human race. There must be those who have come clear of that before there could be the provision of the evidence of God on earth which would be capable of engendering trust in a general sense—not that everybody would be likely to trust.

So this necessity has been one of the divine problems, hasn't it?—how to get it established. We can see how much easier the original creation was than this can of worms, because human beings have established a pattern of contrariness insofar as God is concerned. They see the devil contending with God but they do not as a rule realize that they themselves are the devil in their own subjection to this distorted condition, so that their fear and their shame makes them unwilling to allow the spontaneous re-creation to occur. Always there has been the necessity of working out the essential starting point, and this has been done on a number of occasions in the past, but by reason of lack of response to the starting point provided it has heretofore always come to naught. Human unwillingness has prevailed. The most recently outstanding example of man's unwillingness related to the time when our Master was on earth in the form of Jesus, for here was a perfect starting point. What has been carried over in human experience from that starting point has all been based in the same patterns as before, contained in the mass consciousness of humanity. So apparently nothing came of it. However, it still remains the one supreme starting point, and it is out of this that may come what is needful to permit trust in God to be generated on earth in the hearts of men.

We find ourselves associated with something that relates to all this—the development of a mechanism which is not governed by the mass consciousness of man but is governed, rather, by the irresistible force of the spirit of God; for we recognize that if spontaneous re-creation is to occur it occurs because of God and not because of man. As long as human beings imagine that they somehow can transform themselves, can educate themselves sufficiently, can train themselves in some remarkable fashion to be what they ought to be, it is absolutely impossible for the spontaneous re-creation to occur. The human mind stands rigidly in the way. The absoluteness of the letting go that is required may begin to be appreciated. We have spoken about it before but I do not believe that most have realized what it was that permitted the re-creation to occur. It wasn't because the human mind was able to figure something out; it wasn't because the human mind could begin to see, as it thought, what the truth was; it was because the human mind came to the point of beginning to see how things work and therefore was willing to let go and stop trying to make it work.

Man was originally created spontaneously by God. Man, if he is to be recreated, must experience this spontaneously under the hand of God again. This is the only way it can be done. But how to persuade human beings to let go and let it happen—this has always been the problem, because the human mind has always thought that it knew which way to go and what to do next, and how to handle things and what technique to establish, all these things. And the world is full of such stuff, full of it from the conscious standpoint and far fuller of it from the subconscious standpoint. Obviously the human mind produced all this. How on earth could it be expected to get rid of it all? It actually has not in the least been interested in getting rid of it. The main interest has been in adding to the store, increasing knowledge, so that the human mind might be better able to grapple with the problems—which is exactly what is not required; it is just the reverse of what is required. The human mind grappling with problems has produced this state; the only way it can be changed is for the human mind to stop grappling with the problems and allow the creative power of God to bring forth man once again.

So we begin to see how it may happen: spontaneous re-creation, because there is a yielded body of human beings who are willing that it should happen. One obviously must be willing for oneself, that this may occur. This is very frightening to the human mind because immediately it begins to question, “Well how is it going to happen?” Why do you think it questions that way? So that it can find out whether it's going to agree or not; not only that but so that it can find out sufficiently so that it might dispense with the Lord God and get the job done itself. But of course this could never happen. It's a complete mystery to the human mind and no matter what it does it can never find out. In the original creation there was nobody on hand to interfere; there was nobody on hand trying to pry into the processes that were bringing this creation forth. When the creation was brought forth and finally came to the point of a consciousness of itself, it couldn't look back and comprehend what had happened. You as a person now can't look back to know what the experience was when you were one single cell in the external sense, nor can you tell what the experience was in your mother's womb, or even for a while after you were born. So all that was carried on without any help from your bright intellect. What a marvel was accomplished before your intellect was on the scene of things, before your conscious mind was present.

Obviously, then, the conscious mind as such is not necessary to the process of spontaneous re-creation—it is not necessary at all. The only reason it has to be taken into account is to provide the opportunity for it to cease interfering; and to bring the human mind to that point is a task indeed, because at every conceivable opportunity it wants to interfere. It thinks it knows. While it may be willing to admit that it doesn't know about something over there, it knows perfectly well what needs to be done here, it thinks!—but it doesn't. How to maneuver the human mind out of the way in such a manner that life may continue in the human form and the spontaneous re-creation may occur? Is your human mind capable of grappling with that problem, do you think? Of course not. It doesn't need to. This has always been the Lord's business and He has evidently been very ingenious in the matter, providing opportunities of various sorts, leading forward hopefully, until finally the subjection of man to the mass consciousness established such a rigid unwillingness that something else had to be undertaken. There were many of these opportunities that had to be relinquished. They couldn't work anymore. The rigidity of unwillingness was so thorough.

Now willingness is a matter of the heart, not a matter of figuring something out. Yielding is a matter of the heart, a willing heart. If the heart responds in willingness to the dawning realization that the Lord God is now here and that individually the angel is now here, the beginning of trust can emerge. Most of what human beings think of as trust in God is not. When people think they are trusting in God they are usually tempting God. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” What happens? A person decides to move along a certain course which he presumably feels would be a good thing to do. Using his mind he tries to determine the pitfalls and to avoid them. But what he has envisioned looks good, and so he persists. And probably somewhere along the way he finds opposition arising to such an extent that he feels that it is necessary to seek help, and maybe the help he seeks is from God. Possibly, if he is inclined to prayer, he may explain to God what he has been doing and how it was good and how he now needs help. So he tries to get God to support him in his self-devised course. That is tempting the Lord; that is a human being trying to get God to agree with human self-centeredness.

Sometimes people find that their prayers seem to be answered. Why? Presumably because there is some potential remaining in that person to experience spontaneous re-creation, so that if God said “No”, that would be a write-off, wouldn't it? It's rather fortunate that God is not inclined to make arbitrary decisions—I doubt if we would be sitting here tonight if He were so inclined—because human beings everywhere, whether they have realized it or not, have endeavored to get God to support them in their self-centeredness. Anyone who tries to use his life for his own purposes is doing this, because life is of God; it is the life of God. Most people usually say my life. Stealing, that is. So there are those who have found that God has delivered at times, answered their prayers, and they think of this as trust in God. If a person brings himself to a very low pass of some kind and he says, “Well now, what is necessary is to trust in God,” he is really saying, “Now I am going to tempt God to sustain me, to restore me into my former self-centeredness.” And that is done, if there is any potential in the individual, done repeatedly over the years so that we are still alive. If God said “No” and washed His hands of us at any point, well where would we be? Because of the need for those who will permit spontaneous generation to occur the way is held open for human beings as long as possible; but for this reason alone, not to assist anyone in some self-centered course. Of course if one persists in that way, then finally dust to dust! in any case. But to trust God without trying to make Him follow out the human desire or intention, to let it be His way.

When we say that the human mind doesn't know, doesn't it always seem to a person, to start with, “Well this is impossible”? Why? Because the human mind is being trusted and not God, and we demand that God should trust our human minds so that we are supported in what we do. Well if we do receive a little support in what we do self-centeredly it is simply to keep the door open for us so that we may change our ways, not so that we should persist in self-centeredness.

Look to the angel. Trust God.

We have some consciousness of the presence of the angel of ourselves, and therefore the source of spontaneous re-creation. This is present so far in spite of us, and it is by reason of the fact of the presence of the angel individually and the presence of the Lord God collectively that spontaneous re-creation may occur. It is because of this only that it may occur, not because of anything that the human mind may do of itself, except insofar as it may see the necessity of letting go. That's all that's required of it, so that what is needful may spontaneously occur. And who needs to know how that is going to happen? If the human mind did know how it was going to happen it would interfere for sure. Isn't it a wonderful thing that it doesn't know? It can't really interfere if there is a true letting go. It's not trying to figure out what it is that is happening; it's willing to let happen whatever happens and to participate in this recreative process just as easily, just as naturally, as the dust forming the flesh of the babe participated in that creative process. It didn't need to find out what was happening; it just cooperated. That's all that is required of those who share in permitting spontaneous re-creation to occur on earth. This must first occur in relationship to human beings, that they may become Man. There is a good deal of spontaneous re-creation to occur in everything that's around us, but if it is to occur there it occurs because it first occurs in human beings.

As there is a willingness to let it occur in us we may experience what the spontaneous re-creation is. And just as the babe at a certain point becomes conscious of itself, so does the recreated form of man at a certain point begin to become conscious of itself. That is a totally new experience insofar as this self-centered state of human beings is concerned. But it occurs with absolute inevitability when it is allowed to happen, because it is the irresistible force at work. When we are with it it happens in our own experience. To a certain extent it has been happening in your experience already. What has happened in your experience already has happened entirely without the assistance of your human mind. It didn't happen because you were so bright; it happened merely because there was some measure of willingness to yield. And it is on that basis and that alone that anything whatsoever occurs. We can see the utter futility of all this cerebration that's going on in the world of mankind. It leads absolutely nowhere. But we begin to find that we are moving somewhere; we have this sensing of the experience.

But the human mind can't look around and say, “Where am I going?” any more than the babe, beginning to become self-conscious, begins to look around and say, “What am I going to be when I am a man (or a woman)?” It doesn't care at that point, at all. “What am I now?” is its attitude, and that is what is required of us. What am I now, in this moment? What is my experience now of the moving of this spontaneous recreative cycle in my own experience? Let us let it happen and let us not judge what is happening in ourselves or what is happening in anyone else, but just be willing to let it happen.

© Emissaries of Divine Light