I Am Come In The Name Of The Lord

I  Am  Come  In  The  Name  Of  The  Lord

To  Play  My  Essential  Role

YouTube  Video

Martin Cecil   August 8, 1979   Assembly

I emphasized yesterday that it was our responsibility individually, and as members of this Assembly, to pose a question to the world. It seems from what someone said in a letter that there was some thought that the question was being posed to us. This would indicate that we have reverted again into the educational situation, so that we classified ourselves amongst those who are being questioned by the Lord. As long as it stays at that level, nothing is being achieved whatsoever yet. Hearing the question of the Lord, as presumably we have in the past, we may have answered, “Yes.” I trust so—otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here—but His concern is that the question should be asked of the world. In order for you to have the opportunity of hearing the question and answering it, someone had to ask it of you. Now it's our turn to ask it of others. We are not here to give the answer but to receive the answer. I suppose it could be said that the answer is made plain, rightly, if we are really asking the question, because the truth is revealed in our living, and that is the answer. We're not laying that on anyone—it's there for them to recognize if they will—but the very fact that the truth is in expression poses the question to others. So we are here to align ourselves with the Lord in the attitude toward all people, “I will demand of thee and answer thou me.” If someone does answer, “Yes”, then moving through the educational cycles they presumably will graduate at some point and participate in the further expansion of the sounding of the Tone or the asking of the question.

I might remind you of some words here: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate, for I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Here was the dissolution of the Second Sacred School. The opportunity that He came to extend to the children of men had been so rejected that there was no door left to open insofar as the Second Sacred School was concerned—and so He was here introducing the Third Sacred School. He said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth until something happens.” He was speaking to those who would be present at any given time when the opportunity for the something to happen was available. He was speaking to the Jews perhaps, particularly in that setting, but He was speaking to all those who were looking for the answer, which is the usual human approach—human beings are looking for the answer. Glibly we say, “You are the answer.” If you are the answer, then you give it. So indication is presented here of what should occur by reason of the opening of another opportunity. The house of the Second Sacred School was left desolate—it wasn't available anymore for human beings.

As we have noted, there is the tendency on the part of human nature to look back and see something that it imagines it could use to advantage, and it has done this with respect to the Second Sacred School, and tried to pick up the pieces and make it work again, without the presence of the One who was capable of making it work—at least without His manifest presence on earth. There's been a tendency to try and get around that and say that He's really with us anyway, in the heavenly sense. But we realize that nothing can work except as there is the fact made manifest of the union of heaven and earth. That was the only basis that the Second Sacred School could have worked. That union was revealed in Jesus, of course. The earth must be on hand, even though the approach may be a heavenly one. The earth must be on hand if there is to be the generation of the substance that is required to make that heaven known. We realize this to be so now. There was some consideration of this, looking at it from the standpoint of the initiation of what is to occur from the standpoint of the first seal, or from the standpoint of the lowest level, from the standpoint very definitely of the earth.

So the Second Sacred School was gone and the Third Sacred School was yet to come. “Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Well, we can look at this from the standpoint of those who are girding themselves to say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” We were in that classification, I suppose, at one point. There must be he who comes in the name of the Lord for anyone to say, “Blessed is he”—and this is our concern: the he that comes in the name of the Lord. This has reference both to a point of focus in this regard, and also to the identity of the collective expression of that One, because we are looking here at the Body of the Son of God, the Body of the Archangel, however it might be described. But let us see this not merely as a physical body composed of physical flesh; when the word “body” is mentioned, this usually is what flashes first in consciousness, something physical. But there is a spiritual body too, and it is this that is of primary importance. There can be no physical manifestation without a spiritual manifestation. We know that that is even true of our own physical bodies now. We've noted what occurs after conception, and how there must be the pneumaplasmic provision if there is going to be the building of a physical body—and so in this sense the spirit comes first, and then the pneumaplasmic body, and then the physical body.

The spirit must be present to activate and animate what is happening; but it will only activate and animate to the extent that there is the connecting substance of spirit, spiritual substance, pneumaplasm. When that is there, there is activation by reason of this fact, so that the physical substance which is brought, the inheritance which begins to put in an appearance, through the mother's body in this instance, may be incorporated into a form that isn't at all haphazard. It isn't haphazard because of what is present in the spiritual body. So if we speak of the formation of a body, let us not exclude the reason for that formation—namely, the spiritual body composed of spiritual substance. Only when that is so can there be a physical body. But with the tendency in human consciousness to have the treasure on earth rather than in heaven, if the word “body” is mentioned, immediately everybody thinks of a flesh body. A flesh body is very necessary, but it will only be present because there is a spiritual body to allow it to be present. There will only be life because of that spiritual body, because of the spirit which activates and animates the spiritual substance, which is turn activates and animates the physical substance. The physical substance, being activated and animated, then generates more spiritual substance, so that the greater wholeness of spirit may emerge.

We see this very specifically relates to what occurs from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School—the spiritual expression plane approach. The First Sacred School, yes, the flesh was about all that anybody could see, or were even interested in. So now we have the spiritual expression plane approach, as we well know, which begins to establish the true orientation. Of course, if the approach had carried through from the First Sacred School to the Second Sacred School, to the Third Sacred School, it would have brought the orientation ultimately on that basis. But as there was failure in the first two schools, then obviously it wasn't being brought forward on that basis. It had to be brought forward for itself, with the spiritual expression plane approach—and we recognize mental and physical implications. Here we come again to this matter of implications. The physical factors and the mental factors are simply implications that we may observe. They're not the first order of business at all. There are implications spiritually speaking with respect to mental function and physical function. We need to discover what those implications are. We cannot receive these implications, we cannot give them to anybody else on this proverbial platter we’ve been talking about, because the First and Second Sacred Schools are no more. That approach cannot be made. So having made the spiritual expression plane approach, we begin to discover that there are implications mentally and physically in this regard; but we need ourselves individually to allow these implications to flood forth into the experience of our living. We need to follow out implications, so that we see from the spiritual standpoint what is necessary mentally speaking and what is necessary physically speaking, because we have observed the implications. We haven't been given a set of rules, “Do this mentally speaking; do that physically speaking.” All that related to the First and Second Sacred Schools. But each individual, with the spiritual approach, must discover those implications for him- or herself.

Various hints or clues have been provided, which there has been an inclination for many, as you well know, to translate, interpret, into physical or mental terms. That's entirely taboo insofar as the Third Sacred School is concerned. That might have been all right, perhaps, if the approach was being made from the physical standpoint or from the mental standpoint. Then there was a code of rules, wasn't there? a Ten Commandments, and all this. But now we need to discern what it is that needs to find expression mentally and physically. We need to discover what the spiritual implications are in this regard, because we become aware of what is true spiritually speaking—then it needs to emerge out into expression; and this presumably is what we've been experiencing in whatever measure, with, however, a tendency to maintain something of a casing around us of the mental and physical factors which require an explanation somehow. We don't know what that explanation is, because we're not making that approach. We live from the spiritual standpoint, allowing the implications of that to flood mind and body. Then we're in position to ask the question, because we ourselves are then revealing the truth. The truth is there, so those of whom we ask the question are not left clueless anymore—there is the living truth. Very few are likely to recognize that fact, but nevertheless the fact that it is there exerts an influence and poses the question. The fact that Jesus was present back along the way certainly posed a question then. It was posed in a little different way because He was initiating the Second Sacred School, and carrying it through as far as was possible—but nevertheless a question was posed. “Will you or will you not acknowledge me?”—fundamentally was His approach from the mental standpoint. He continued to emphasize the works. “If you can't believe me, my own state, look at the works, believe those”—be willing to make a mental acceptance of this. “If you do that, then I’ll carry you through,” is what He was saying in effect. “I’ll carry you through the Second Sacred School, and we'll move on eventually to the Third Sacred School.”

But the answer that He received to that question was so blundering and restricted and uncomprehending that it wasn't worth anything. He reached a point where it was useless to continue in that way, and so we have these words which are an indication of the point that was reached when the shift took place, and He pointed to something that was to come. And we have an awareness of our responsibility to provide what is necessary so that others may say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” because we ourselves, individually and together, come in the name of the Lord, and we're not answering any more questions. The question has been answered insofar as we are concerned—“I am come in the name of the Lord. Here I am. Because I have answered this question in fact and not in theory only, the spiritual body of the Lord has taken form to this extent.”

“He that cometh in the name of the Lord” refers to that One in whom we all live and move and have our being. “I and my Father are one.” The human mind would be inclined to translate this as though the Master should have said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he or she who cometh in the name of the Lord,” or “Blessed are they who come in the name of the Lord.” No, because there's only One in fact—and we know this if we are coming in the name of the Lord. “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.” And we differentiate that spiritual coming according to our particular roles in the fulfilment of our coming, so that there may be for the world, “He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

The question is then posed and the answer can then be given. Because it is a collective expression of spirit, there is an entirely different situation to what it was when it was only an individual expression of spirit. It is because of this collective factor—which relates to the Third Sacred School incidentally—because of this collective factor in spirit that the question can be posed and consequently the whole issue brought to point so that the answer must be given. “There shall be no more time.” The line is to be drawn. Every individual has the choice to make an answer one way or the other way—that's open. Possibly it might be argued that there is the imposition of the question, but even that doesn't seem to be an imposition. Sometimes human beings translate it as though it were an imposition because they don't really see the question; but the question is asked simply because there are those present who are in their living asking it—and those presumably include us. That's what we're here in the Assembly for—to allow ourselves to assume the role of the asker of the question.

Now obviously this role is not just one thing, in the sense of all of us being duplicates of each other. We have seen something emerging into form, we say, but if there is an external form of some kind, why is it emerging? Why is it putting in an appearance? Obviously not because there are some brilliant minds on hand who have sat down together and decided, “Well this should be the form and that should be the form,” although there is a tendency, when the form does begin to emerge, for the minds to get in there and interpret the form according to the concepts of the mind. This is the way good Emissary concepts are formed, instead of just leaving it alone, trusting spirit to bring forth its own form. It will bring forth that form step by step—not in a jerky way. You know that if the babe forms in the womb it's a very smooth process. It doesn't just jump from one day to the next. So there is a smooth unfoldment, which tends to be made jerky in some respects because the mind gets in there and tries to crystallize it at some certain point. Well I don't think you'd want a body that was all just one type of cell. There is a vast variety here. And one of the things that prevents the natural unfoldment of what is now occurring is the fact that people observe too much what is happening someplace else, which they think relieves them of the responsibility of letting their own implications be brought forth, to see what those might be, which the spirit was seeking to build in that location. Let us never imagine that we can collectively copy each other, any more than we rightly can individually copy each other. There has been the endeavor to do this individually too, and we have a whole row of the same person almost! What's the use of that? So, certainly, there is a design, and we recognize the reality of the design which needs to emerge out of the Core.

It is a Spiritual Core. It has physical form because the Core needs to be on earth, but it is the spiritual core on earth that is important. The physical aspect of it is only important because it allows the spiritual Core to be on earth. So we do not emphasize the physical aspects. We are concerned to associate ourselves, to experience, the spiritual aspects. One of the characteristics of the Core in its most focused aspects can be described by the words, stillness and quietness. This has been emphasized, hasn't it? “In quietness and in confidence is my strength.” Be still. So there must, collectively speaking, be a still place, out of which springs what is differentiated, spiritually speaking, taking form in a variety of ways.

Now there are those who rightly function more particularly in the Spiritual Core at the point of focus; but if everybody was in that Spiritual Core at the point of focus, there would be precious little connection with the creative field of our responsibility as a body. So there must be those who function at every level. Now the intent is to generate substance so that there may be substance firmly connecting upward and substance available to flood the world. This is the substance of Love. We may call it that without understanding anything because we use those words, necessarily. But our concern is to flood the world with the substance of Love, so that the impact of Truth that is present may bring to pass the essential answering of the question that is thereby being posed.

There is a design in this Body, this facility, this primarily spiritual facility, by which these things are accomplished, and there are those who need to function at all levels in this facility. There has been a tendency on the part of Emissaries very often to think of themselves as all being at the same level. Well, perhaps there's a little peak right at the Center where I stand, and a few others around there—this little peak sticking up out of a broad, flat plane. Everybody else is buddies on this broad, flat plane—“You're not any higher than I am; and you're not any higher than I am.” All these human nature attitudes have absolutely nothing to do with what we are about. There are roles to be played so that the machinery may be operative, and those roles differ. There's a great variety of them. This requires that there be those in manifest human form who are content in human consciousness to play the particular role which becomes obviously their own. Well, they will never find out what it is that is obviously their own if they are trying to compare themselves with everybody else, or trying to pick and choose the role that is going to be played. The role is already established, and no human mind is going to change that—so if we don't like it we'd better learn to lump it, because that's the way it is. Such a statement is quite true, but it hasn't had too much effect on most because there are still so many trying to pick and choose, trying to make it satisfactory to themselves, and vying with each other for position. That's human politics, isn't it? It has nothing to do with what we're about!

There are roles at the very Core of things, obviously. There is that necessity. There are roles in concentric spheres beyond that, all the way out, and no role is more important than any other role, because all of them are necessary. And one finds oneself playing certain roles. Now there are, in the external sense, maybe changes in those roles which work out, but I'm thinking of this from the spiritual standpoint. The whole exercise is designed so that the desolate world may be given an opportunity to say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” We can discern what the implications are with respect to this. We don't just sit there and say, “What does that mean?” Let a little spiritual thinking occur, so that you discover what the implications are. When you do this you'll begin to discover what the implications are for you, and you thereby begin to discover what your spiritual role is, because the spiritual role can never be handed to you—like one might say, “Well, this is your coat. This is the spiritual role. This is the robe you will be wearing now.” The spiritual role must come out of you. It can't be imposed upon you! So we have the responsibility, then, of extending the question to others in a recognition of what is required of others. They are required to answer that question for themselves. Not to sit there adoring us and saying, “Oh, that's wonderful; you are answering all our questions.” Some of you may have had a little experience of that along the way, where someone takes such a stance. That may seem to be a necessary step for some, but finally we lay it on the line spiritually and say, “You answer it. I'm not going to give you any answer. I will reveal the truth, but it is up to you to accept that expression of truth into your own living or reject it in your own living. That's all.” That's fundamentally the question, isn't it?

In order to accept it into one's own living there is an educational process necessary; but it is spiritual education, bringing people to the door, with the objective of going through it, that they may share with us in providing the spiritual expression necessary to pose the question to all people. So there are the spiritual essences at the Core, and then these essences are carried forth into key areas in the world, one way or another—and there are those who have roles to play in that regard. There are those who have roles to play at the very Core of things, there are those who have roles to play at the periphery of the Core, and there are those who have roles to play in between, so that there may be a whole thing and everything may be handled, everything may be encompassed. Obviously this necessitates that those to whom we pose this question should actually relinquish their human nature tendencies, so that they stop vying for position, so that they stop projecting themselves forward as something important all on their own. None of us carry importance all on our own. We're only important to the extent that we are participating in the whole, which is important.

So here we move as a spiritual body, in this formation a miniature spiritual body, playing the roles for the moment that are necessary here, seeing that we are providing a spiritual Core, and consequently that everything in our expression, not only while we're sitting here together but everything in our expression throughout the day, may be exactly right as a part of the expression of this Spiritual Core. We have a consciousness of responsibility in this regard—we say. We talk about responsibility, and human nature tends to shy away from it. But spiritual responsibility is something different. It's something that is naturally acceptable to the extent that we have in fact answered Yes to the question. Then, accepting that responsibility, obviously we're in position to ask the question of others. But again, let me emphasize the point that it is not an imposition. In effect, there is the evidence of the truth made manifest, and human beings come up against that. The people with whom we come in physical contact come up against that. And there are others with whom we establish vibrational contact in one way or another, they come up against that—unconsciously for the most part, until they come a lot closer. They sense the question being asked, and unconsciously they begin to answer it; and somewhere along the way they reach a point where it comes out consciously—this happened to all of us—and the answer coming out consciously may come out consciously, Yes; subconsciously, No. Well we're not too concerned even if it's No, because all we are concerned about is that the question should be posed and answered, and each individual is permitted to answer it for him‑ or herself. We make no demands. We do not require anything of anyone, but we know very well that everyone is going to have to make the choice—and we know this for sure to the extent that we participate in the process which asks the question.

“Answer thou me.” The question is asked by our living—but let us not imagine that the true living does not bring something very specific to bear. True living is not just drifting along in some sort of spiritual euphoria. It's very exact, very specific. We are conveying what is coming down from God out of heaven into the earth in this fashion, and those who dwell on earth are deciding for themselves as to whether they are going to participate in the process by which this may continue to emerge into manifestation or whether they are going to exclude themselves from that process. The process is not going to stop! It is going to complete itself somewhere along the line, and those who object to it will not be on hand at that point.

“Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Have we not seen Him? The human mind may want to pin it down—“Well, we need Him in a particular form now, so that we can really recognize Him”—because the attention is being given to the form and not to the spirit. But we see spiritually, and we see Him. We certainly see Him if we have accepted the responsibility of being in His Name. In His Name is in His spirit, in His Word, in what He is. If we are in that, we see Him. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Not this vast figure that human beings tend to imagine, because they translate everything in terms of form, but the spirit which is present now relative to our own experience, as we allow the focus of it to find expression. That is God—and that which so finds expression is not separate from all that God is, finding expression everywhere; but we do not imagine that something would be gained by having the experience of that. How could we? All we are capable of experiencing is what comes to focus in our own expression. We may rejoice in the glory revealed through others in whom the same thing is happening. Wonderful. But we don't want to possess God, do we, personally—there's old self‑centered human nature again—just to allow the individual expression, which is part of the greater expression. And we have a consciousness of the greater expression. You can't allow your individual expression of spirit to pour forth in your living without having a consciousness of the overall expression. Maybe not in a specific sense, but certainly as it relates to what is close to you; not in a specific sense insofar as the overall expression of God is concerned, but you're aware of the overall expression of God. And you're aware very vividly of what is close to you, and you're aware most vividly of what is pouring out through you—substance—substance flooding our worlds, the substance of Love, in which the question is asked. This is so when we abide in His Name.

The Christian world has got rather hung‑up on this business of “in His name,” without understanding it, apparently, at all. In His Name, in His spirit, a part of His spiritual body in experience, not merely to be honed for one day but in experience now, that there may be an outpouring of spirit because there's an outpouring of substance. We have substantial lives to live, substantial lives in a variety of roles. The roles tend to become more specific as the body fills out. As was noted before, in the beginning there were very few, so everybody had to do everything. Now it begins to be so that the distinctions in roles can be recognized, and we can intelligently associate ourselves in this pattern of distinction. We're not trying to grab anything for ourselves. We find ourselves gently and easily present in the particular role where we need to be; and we're not looking at somebody else, comparing it with somebody else. We are playing our role, and playing our role, we see the implications of that role, and we begin to see the implications as these implications relate to the implications of other people's roles. It all begins to come together because it's coming together through us; it's coming forth through the facilities of expression that we have. And it is one thing coming forth, One Spirit differentiated—a great variety revealed, but One Spirit just the same.

How beautiful to share these things, in this particular setting, with these who are here present playing this role here now. We are all playing a role as Assembly members, but within the Assembly there are particular roles—and it is the overall pattern that is the important thing, because this carries the greatest impact; but the overall pattern is also dependent upon the fact that we assume correctly our individual roles within the whole. To the extent that we are doing this, there is a spiritual impact. The question is being asked more vibrantly in the consciousness of mankind. There are those who will be participating with us in this, in other roles beyond this Core—between this Core and the periphery, way further out—and there will be those at the periphery who, because we are pouring substantial substance into this whole field, will find themselves with that substantial substance out wherever they are, and doing whatever they are doing, so that what is coming from the Core reaches the world of our responsibility. Praise the Lord for the design of Life!

There is the generation of substance now which is part of our responsibility now; but the substance is generated and it's there, and it is poured forth in whatever measure beyond us. But we find that when this particular Assembly pattern is no more that the substance is still there. It is then carried individually but we find that when we go where we're going, it's there too, because of what we've been doing here. And the sense of oneness, then, is not reduced at all by reason of the fact that we may not be associated together in the same direct way as we have been during this Assembly period. It is the spiritual substance which allows for the sense of oneness, and not the physical proximity in fact, although the physical proximity has a purpose for the generation of the substance in this particular configuration. And there will continue to be physical proximities wherever we are in various ways—sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, which still is concerned with the generation of substance.

© emissaries of divine light

The Intervening Provision

from

The  Intervening  Provision

Martin Cecil   April 16, 1978  pm

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:

and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said,

Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

And immediately I was in the spirit;

and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”

There is One who sits on the throne, not half a dozen. We have some awareness of the reality of the One Law, of the truth as it relates to what has been called focalization—this is a fact of life. The reality of life, the true Tone of Life, is made evident because of this fact. There is One who sits on the throne. In order that this might come out of the realm of imagination into the realm of true experience the throne which is in heaven must be made known. The composition of that throne is angelic—it is formed of angels who function in heaven, in the realm of cause, revealing the reality of the One who sits upon the throne. It is because of this One, because of this Supreme Point of Focus, that agreement, oneness is made possible. This One who sits upon the throne we have seen as relating not only to an invisible point but to an undimensional point. The throne itself is dimensional. It is a reality in heaven, the realm of cause for this earth. The heaven and the earth are the two aspects of the dimensional world, but the throne is set in heaven. This is certainly invisible from the earthly standpoint but quite knowable from the angelic standpoint.

There is then a heavenly facility by which the One extends His authority and His government into the world. That authority and that government spring alone from that One. We may speak of that One, we may identify that One by using words, perhaps the Lord God, the LORD of Lords, the Lord of Love, but the use of words does not acquaint us with that One. We are only acquainted with that One to the extent that we are actually centered in that One, that all our love is offered to that One, nothing whatsoever held out. The first great commandment is supreme. The whole capacity to love in the human sense must be yielded to the One who sits upon the throne if the first great commandment is to be kept. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all.” How is this to be done?

We have considered these matters before but let us look at it again. Is it a matter of endeavoring to love some invisible God figure somewhere? No. That would be an endeavor to love a concept of the mind. It certainly wouldn't be loving God. The only way by which we may love God is through the provision which He has made by which we might do so. It might be said to be an intervening provision. There is something between the yielded human heart and God, something to provide a connection. This was emphasized insofar as the Christian religion was concerned when considering the part that Jesus Christ was supposed to play, but the concepts that have been developed around this idea have certainly not revealed what the truth is, because, for one thing, the truth is not a concept of the mind.

There is a reality in heaven. There is the throne, upon which the One sits. The throne is in the heaven. The One is above the throne. The only way by which one may come in yielded love to the One who is above the throne is by reason of the throne. We are using symbolic words to describe something here. There is a very specific configuration of angels who provide the connection between the One and the yielded human heart. This is not a haphazard jumble of angelic beings—there is a very specific configuration. That configuration was described in this particular chapter in earthly terms, and those earthly terms have not meant very much to human beings generally speaking, because they had no experience of the reality which was being described. However, as we noted this morning [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2020/09/configurations-of-angels-from-spirit-of.html] there is something that can be spiritually discerned relative to what are spoken of as the Four Beasts. In focusing in upon this I am not ignoring all the other symbols that are used to complete the picture, but merely to look at something that relates to our own present experience.

We took note of what was portrayed for us by the choir. The choir as a whole was made whole by reason of these four groups. There were four groups in the choir by reason of the people who composed those groups. Each group had a very particular part to play in the whole. That part was distinct from all the other parts and yet it required them all put together for the reality of the whole, the choir, to be known. This may well also be a portrayal relative to the throne of which I have been speaking. There is the necessity for this throne to become known in heaven on earth. It is a reality in heaven already; it doesn't have to be made so. But because human beings have been functioning in the earth, in the realm of effects, utilizing effects as causes for their actions, they have been below the veil and the heaven has been unknown. There has been speculation about heaven, but the reality has remained unknown and must remain unknown as long as the earth of human experience is held out as something separate. The heaven is then hidden—there is a veil between. Most people imagine that all that can be known about heaven is based in religious concepts or a fanciful roaming in the realm of imagination. The realm of imagination has seemed to human beings very often to be very real; sometimes it's very real in the dream state; but we become aware of the fact that what is real must be experienced to be known and it can't be experienced as it is merely on the basis of imagination or of an endeavor to believe something.

Heaven is a present reality and the throne is present in the heaven. The design by which the yielded heart may receive the truth of heaven into spiritual expression on earth is present. It is present by reason of the fact that the angels who compose it are present. We recognize those angels as being present insofar as we personally are concerned by reason of the fact of incarnation in human form. The presence of the angel in human form sustains the life in that human form and was responsible for the building of that human form in the first place. So certainly the composition of the throne is very close. It's very close to each individual. The very cause of life in personal experience is a part of that throne.

As angelic expression begins to characterize our experience we begin to discover associations emerging. We find ourselves associated with others who are experiencing the same thing. We find this to be true not because we set out to choose this one or that one to associate with, but it naturally happens. Sometimes there has been objection to the happening. Sometimes those who found themselves associating with each other didn't much care for the idea in the human sense, but the human sense really has no bearing in the matter at all—we are concerned with what is the fact, the reality in heaven. Wisely we do not buck that reality. We accept the outer circumstance for what it is; it's there, after all. We certainly do not indulge in wishful thinking, in wishful desires that it might be some other way. Human beings imagine that they can be ruled by their hearts and by their mental concepts, thereby finding fulfilment in some human pattern of relationship. There are all kinds of them set up all over the place and human beings usually insist upon these things. Effective personal relationships emerge when we are not being ruled by our hearts and minds. There is the need for spirit to find expression, spirit which will govern the operation of the heart and the operation of the mind and the operation of the body.

So, as ever, our concern is with true spirit. If the world is to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne, there is only One Way, and that is through what has been spoken of as the Christ, or in other terms the Lamb, or in still another term, Shekinah. This is present in the heaven because of the angels who are present in the heaven, the angels differentiating the spirit of the One who sits upon the throne, differentiating that spirit in the heaven. The differentiation of that spirit doesn't change it; it merely causes it to be comprehensible. As long as it remains undifferentiated in the One, it is not comprehensible. As it is differentiated by the angels in the heaven it becomes comprehensible, and the angels compose the design by which authority and government may be extended into the earth.

It is only on the basis of response because of the throne that anyone can be restored to the One who sits upon the throne. That is in fact the restoration—mankind is to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne. Restoration implies a coming again. This experience of being One with the One who sits upon the throne was known on earth before. It is known in heaven now. Because it is known in heaven now it can be known on earth now, and we have the opportunity of so yielding human hearts in love toward the One who sits upon the throne—but in a specific sense toward that configuration of angels which composes the throne. No man cometh unto the Father, unto the One who sits upon the throne, but by what intervenes. The angelic design in heaven intervenes. Human beings have been trying to come directly to God, usually on the basis of some imaginary figure, but there is only One Way. Obviously, no other way has yet succeeded. So there is the Way, the Truth and the Life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The true angelic identity of the individual is the Way, the Truth and the Life for that person, and only through the angel is it possible to be restored to the One who sits upon the throne.

Collectively speaking we have spoken of the Archangel, utilizing that word to describe the focus of the collective identity in heaven—one might say the Throne Identity, the identity of the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne. Now the composition of this throne is of angels, angels in a very specific configuration. It requires a very specific configuration for the creative process to work. It was designed this way, but human beings have been trying to change the design to suit themselves. But the design in fact has not changed; it's the same as it always has been.

If we begin to have experience of spiritual expression in living, so that we begin to know ourselves in angelic consciousness, we find that there are associations emerging, associations between angels. Necessarily the human element tags along, but the association is between angels if it is real, if it is a part of the design, if it is included in the throne upon which there is One who sits. Now we find ourselves in these associations. If we lose our angelic vision and return to the human view then we discover that there are all kinds of things that are not pleasing or not right, we think, in our associations with this one or that one. The angelic association has nothing to do with human likes and dislikes. Human likes and dislikes will distract people from the experience of the angelic association. They get hung up in human nature. We are very much concerned for the clear experience of angelic association. In this regard, there are specific configurations. Four of them are described in this 4th chapter of the Book of Revelation—the Four Beasts, the four living creatures. This is not a complete description of all possible associations necessary to the creative process springing from cause in heaven.

We have an association here in the Chapel. This is an open-ended association because it includes all who wish to be here. However, in the creative process there are associations which specifically include certain angels. We need to reach a point where we can assemble groupings of people without anyone who is not included in the particular grouping feeling that they are somehow being excluded or being put down in some fashion. Because of such reactions we have rather seldom been able to have particular configurations for particular creative purposes—the reactions of others who are not a part of the grouping would tend to nullify anything that was being achieved by the grouping. There is one grouping that has more or less been accepted, and that relates to what is called the Supreme Council.

I don't think there are too many in our ministry who feel that they should be included in that, and that they are being put down because they are not included in that. Because there has been the minimum of reaction insofar as this little grouping is concerned we have been able to make use of it to advantage for specific creative purposes—but there should be vastly more such groupings. If these are undertaken, what is the attitude going to be on the part of those who may not be included in some particular initial grouping? As angels we have our parts to play and that's all there is to it, and we play our parts in relationship to others. If the creative purposes for which we are here as angels are to be fulfilled there is the need for a great variety of these groupings for very particular purposes. The human mind may not understand. Why should it? Why be bothered if the human mind does not understand? Don't identify yourself with it and you won't be bothered.

I present these things this evening to open a door in your awareness and in the awareness of others who shall have the opportunity of sharing this service later one way or another. We need to get on with the job, and as we do get on with the job, without indulging ourselves in any reactionary attitudes, there begins to be a more specific point of focus and orientation for human beings everywhere. It is by reason of these various groupings that people can be touched in various ways, depending upon what is present with respect to the angels concerned, the nature of the spirit that is being differentiated, and also taking into account the earthly heredity of the particular form of the individual, because we have our connections on this basis with people everywhere. We are designed to use these connections, but we certainly can't use these connections other than in angelic consciousness. Then we are no longer reacting all over the place, we are no longer feeling put down because we were not selected to be a part of this particular group. How does the human mind know where the angel should be? Let it work out on the basis of the angelic expression and it will be right. It is the fact of these various configurations that provides the means of connecting up with every aspect that is present in the consciousness of mankind, so that all who will may become increasingly aware of the specific nature of the connection with the One who sits upon the throne.

No one can circumvent that connection and reach the One who sits upon the throne. Human beings in their human nature patterns like to imagine that they have their special connections, but there is only One Way, One Truth, One Life, and it relates to identification with cause—identification individually, in a specific sense, with the reality of one's own angelic nature; in the collective sense, with the Hosts of Heaven who are all already centered in the One who sits upon the throne and already differentiating that One Spirit. Because of this the restoration of man to his true state is made possible. We share this responsibility. It has been said that we need to grow up. That means that we need to accept the angelic identity. Then we know why we are here. There is nothing personal anymore that we hold out for our own. It is all included in the overall purpose of our presence on earth, and if we need to be a part of one group for a specific purpose and not a part of another group, well that's the way it is, that's what we are here for—and we begin to find out that we actually fit in these configurations. We discover that it is a most fitting state of affairs, a delightful state of affairs, and we see the creative cycles moving and unfolding in all directions, all coordinated by reason of the One Spirit which in differentiated expression is providing what is necessary on earth by which the transformation occurs in human consciousness and man, mankind, is restored.

I am thankful for the privilege of sharing these things with you this evening, that there may be an increasing awareness of angelic associations and an increasing willingness to let those associations take a specific pattern, a specific pattern according to the design of the throne in heaven. That, after all, is what we are here to do as angels. 

© emissaries of divine light

 

Configurations of Angels

Configurations  of  Angels

from  The Spirit of Understanding

Martin Cecil   April 16, 1978  am

In a choir there are a number of individual people offering themselves to the expression of one purpose. Each individual is different, each voice is different, although they fall into certain groupings, four groupings to be exact—soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Regardless of this particular pattern of grouping, each individual voice is still unique, and yet the power and beauty that is generated is generated by the choir as a whole. If what is offered is to be effective there must be the experience of one spirit on the part of all concerned. There is need for someone to provide a point of focus and direction, but the beauty and the power are generated by the choir itself, even though the director is an essential part of the choir—the director may not sing a note. Here is a portrayal of something that is of considerable significance in other fields.

We have a gathering here this morning for the generation of power and beauty which may have an effect upon a large audience of human beings who are not present here in person. When there are those of whom it may be said they are with one accord in one place there is a creative facility available for the use of true cause, for the use of the Lord, for the use of God, whatever term might be used—these fundamentally refer to true cause. True cause is present, the expression of true cause is present, but virtually unknown insofar as human beings in the world are concerned, because they have become involved with another cause. This other cause relates very particularly to the human mind. The human mind tends to think of itself as cause, but the mind itself is an effect. If an effect tries to play the role of cause there is then a false cause present. As long as the function of human beings on earth is wrapped up in this realm of effects true cause remains beyond awareness and is excluded from any true expression in human experience.

That realm of cause which already is present, already exists, already is a reality and always has been, may be referred to as heaven, for the sake of a word. We have seen how human affairs are restricted to the earth. There is a lack therefore of any real understanding of what it is that is transpiring outside of this restricted realm in which they imprison themselves. The practical realm seems to be the realm of earth, and this is considered by most to be all that warrants any consideration. We have seen these things and recognized the futility of remaining embedded in that state. There is the necessity of coming out of it, of awakening, but the means by which we may come out of it is obviously not the false cause of the human mind. True cause relates to what is referred to as true spirit. The mind is quite incapable of understanding or encompassing spirit. On the other hand spirit is quite capable of understanding and encompassing the mind. How often have you made the statement, or heard others make it, “I don't understand”? What is it that doesn't understand? It is the human mind. If you say “I don't understand,” you are saying that you are identified with your own mind. “The mind doesn't understand; therefore I don't understand.” If you expect to experience true understanding and restrict the idea and experience of this to what is possible of your own little mind you will never have any understanding.

There are those who fill their minds with a lot of information. But regardless of the amount of information that has been collected, regardless of the amount of knowledge that is available, there is always the search for more. This obviously gives evidence of the fact that no one understands anything yet. Knowledge is a bottomless pit; there is no end to it. If understanding is to be based upon the ability of the mind to grasp knowledge then the real experience of understanding can never be known. Here is the mind again trying to be cause when it is only an effect. The physical body of man is obviously an effect of something. By the same token the mind is an effect of something—something must be present if there is to be the possibility of mental function. If that something is not present, then all we have is a corpse, and not very much intelligent mental function on that basis.

Be careful what you say. Pause and consider, if you have the impulse to say “I don't understand,” because true identity is in cause. True identity is in true spirit. If there is identity with true spirit then your words would be: “I understand. I may not understand in the sense of mental understanding, my mind may not be capable of encompassing this understanding, but I do not depend upon my mind to tell me when I understand.” This may seem like a peculiar distinction here and may tend to cause those who are identified with their minds to say with respect to this, “I don't understand.” If you feel impelled to say that, then you may know for sure that you are identified with a mind that doesn't understand, because the mind certainly can't understand everything. It is capable of understanding certain things at a certain level but it very quickly gets out of its depth. And then it finds itself in a realm of fantasy, a realm that doesn't really exist in reality. We need to wake from this bad dream. The heaven is the realm of cause, and our identity needs to be there. Then we understand.

Understanding comes to the extent of purity of heart. By reason of this emotional capacity, we may move into a realm of cause where understanding is. It isn't a matter of staying in the earth and trying to accumulate enough information to enable us to understand, because that would never happen. It is a matter of moving over the dividing line into the realm of cause, where understanding already is and may therefore be the experience if our identity is there. You do not grow into understanding. You either experience the fact of it or you don't. You either know identification with spirit, with cause, or you know identification with effect. Identification with effect is a state of darkness. The darkness comprehends not the light, nor ever can. The light relates to cause. If one is restricted to effects one is in darkness, and one will not comprehend the light. And one will be inclined to say, “I don't understand.” Stay in that level and realm of experience and you will never understand, because understanding is impossible there, no matter how much knowledge may be gleaned and stored in the filing cabinet of your subconscious mind. It all remains meaningless. It is a matter of identification with spirit, which is the one place of agreement.

Sometimes it is said that there was a meeting of minds. While momentarily there may be a sense of agreement, it never lasts. Sometimes it is said that there is a meeting of hearts. But that experience is just as evanescent as the other. There is only a true meeting in true spirit. True spirit is uncontrollable by the mind. The mind seeking to establish control over spirit loses true spirit and finds a substitute in its place that might be referred to as evil spirit, wrong spirit, destructive spirit. Human beings are governed constantly by these sort of spirits—human nature is human nature, but why should we insist upon involvement with human nature when we may participate in the experience of angelic nature?

The word “angel” may be used to identify one whose identity is in heaven. If we experience our identity in heaven while we are living in form on earth then obviously there are angels present and in expression on earth; heaven and earth are revealed as being One. And it is this reality in experience that allows the transformation of the consciousness of mankind, but not merely because one person has that experience. We could point to the One who was called Jesus and say, “There is the evidence of an individual who experienced identification in the realm of cause while living on earth.” This fact certainly opened the door, but thus far virtually no one has gone through it. Everybody has fallen down and worshipped the door, if they have paid any attention to it at all. And that is considered the thing to do. But a door is of value because one may go through it. There is no sense to having a door in a room if you are not going to go through it. You might as well fill it in and just put a wall there. It would make no difference to the experience, would it? You might just as well forget about the door. The fact that human beings have remembered the door may, if there is a modicum of intelligence somewhere, suggest the possibility that one might go through it!

As there are those who do awaken to the true experience of identity in the realm of cause it is because there is the experience of spiritual expression. It isn't a static experience: “Let's go through this door and there we are. Isn't it nice to be in heaven? We're now in the realm of cause.” What are you going to do there? Of course the experience of being in the realm of cause is consequent upon the fact that in one's living there is spiritual expression. You only know what you express. As there is an awakening to the reality of cause, so that we begin to be identified with cause, it is because we accept the responsibility in our living of giving expression to the true nature of cause. And we are not always excusing ourselves by saying, “I don't understand.” Oh yes we do! We understand enough for the moment to give expression to true cause at the level of our present experience. It is not a matter of evolving into something in the future; it is a matter of accepting the responsibility in the present moment. We have enough understanding of the quality of right spirit to give it expression. We also have enough understanding of the quality of wrong spirit to refrain from giving it expression. If you refrain from giving expression to what characterizes human nature, human nature will no longer be your nature—angelic nature begins to reveal the true nature of the individual. And this can only be done in living. You only discover the secret of life by living—by expressing the true quality of life. Then life isn't a secret anymore. If that isn't done it remains a secret, it remains hidden; but that is the choice of the individual. As there are those who begin to let this happen agreement becomes a natural experience—agreement in spirit.

This ministry only exists to the extent that there is agreement in spirit. There are those who have tried to make it exist on the basis of agreement in form, but scarcely anyone agrees on this basis. In true spirit there is agreement. In spite of all the disagreement with respect to form this ministry has remained together, because there was sufficient willingness to keep aligned with spirit, in which the agreement was. If we agree in spirit we begin to find that there is a form which emerges in consequence, but it does not emerge because we figured it out with our minds. The mind does rightly play a part in that emergence but only because spirit governs. When spirit governs, the mind moves accordingly, and the understanding of the mind will be what is necessary to fulfil the particular requirements of the expression of spirit in the moment—and the mind in that case may say “I understand this much,” but it minds its own business and it doesn't try to understand something which it does not understand.

The agreement comes in spirit. And those whose identity begins to center there find themselves a part of something that reveals the design in spirit. There is a design in cause, a design which when it is operative into the realm of effects allows the realm of effects to reflect the realm of cause. So the concern is with heaven—the realm of cause. What is needful is that true cause should have opportunity of release into the consciousness of mankind. And that is not going to just happen. Victory doesn't come in the way that human beings think it comes. Knowledge—the human mind trying to be as God. It is self-centeredness that has prevented the transformation of human consciousness which may necessarily and easily be experienced. The yoke is easy and the burden is light. But it doesn't happen just by chance; it doesn't happen because we would like it to happen. It happens because there is a fulfilment of the essential requirements. And those essential requirements relate to the realm of cause.

There is something described in earthly terms in the Book of Revelation which has been very confusing to human minds, because the structures of human consciousness were used to describe something which couldn't be described by the structures of human consciousness. We can describe things around us in the earth but the symbols we use to do that, the words we use to do that, are not adequate to describe something in the realm of heaven, the realm of cause. But there is an indication conveyed by the words that are used in the Book of Revelation, as long as we don't get hung up on the words. Last Sunday that we were considering a couple of verses about coming up hither into the realm of cause and becoming aware of certain things because of that. This was described in some detail in a peculiar way, and the description included something which has been translated as four beasts, four living creatures.

This rather interested me before, when I was speaking of the choir, because within the body of the choir there are these four parts. There are many notes being sung during the course of a number by the choir and they all blend together; they are not all the same note. Sometimes, when we begin to think about the realm of cause and perhaps we talk about the sounding of the Tone, we may think of just one note. Clearly that would become tiresome after a little. There is a vast variety and it emerges on the basis of the fact that there are unique individuals associated in distinct configurations. There were four beasts described, four distinct configurations of angels incarnate in human form. What is being described as being in heaven is the authority and the government of God, the means by which cause may operate in the affairs of men. And because true cause operates in the affairs of men, true cause will then operate beyond human beings in whatever the scope of their field of responsibility really is, and that may go way beyond the earth. The point is that this facility of authority and government should begin to be experienced by those who find themselves identified with cause.

There are these configurations of angels for specific creative purposes. Do you think we are all here by chance? You know better than that. Many human gatherings may seem to be by chance, but this isn't so with us because there is an understanding of purpose. We find ourselves associated with others in relationship to the fulfilment of this purpose. You shouldn't think of purpose in terms merely of your momentary task. That is a part of the purpose, but it is not the purpose. There is far more to it than that, obviously. We are sharing a purpose, and the purpose goes way beyond whatever is done—and yet these tasks are necessary. They give us the opportunity to reveal in expression our angelic nature. If we do that then we begin to move in the greater purpose. The conscious mind may not always know what that is. It doesn't need to. It is fortunate very often that it doesn't know, because if it knew it would interfere. But you know in your identification with cause. There is something beyond mental grasp, which is the true knowing. Then the mind can come along and play its part in the total expression of true cause. That total expression is true spirit, spiritual expression, the holy spirit, complete, not little bits and pieces.

So we have the opportunity of allowing various configurations to appear, not by reason of some idea that the human mind has but by reason of what is impelled by spirit. Then those configurations can be used for the creative purpose. And we may share in letting that creative purpose appear. This is the sole reason why any of us are incarnate on earth now.

© emissaries of divine light