New Heaven—Fine Substance

New  Heaven — Fine  Substance

Martin Cecil  April 18, 1980  Assembly

I think you may be aware that there has been a certain sluggishness about assuming responsibility for the creation of the New Heaven heretofore. The generation of fine substance—I wonder what that has really meant in the consciousness of most. Some sort of an imagination; but that generation relates to factual experiences. We may speak of refinement, possibly seeing it in terms of social behavior. There have been a lot of forms developed by human beings, which if they are adhered to, is considered to establish the fact of refinement. The forms do not make the refinement. Because this has been recognized by some there has been a tendency to pitch out the forms; but there was no refined spirit present, so you lost the form of refinement and became aware of the lack of refinement, because there was not any fine substance.

We have been concerned with the generation of fine substance, and this is what is required in the creation of the New Heaven—a level of substance which has been unknown for a long time in human experience. Yet there are those things which have been known. If forms of refinement have been developed, it was because somewhere, originally, there was the spirit of refinement. One cannot say that that spirit has been entirely lost, but the forms have tended to be emphasized rather than the spirit. We are concerned with the spirit. If there is the generation of fine substance the forms will reflect it. The forms may not conform to the ritualistic patterns that have been produced on earth, but they will never violate the reality of refinement, they will never appear as something coarse. This usually happens with human beings who are rebelling about the status quo. They don’t offer anything higher; they offer something lower, more coarse, as though that was going to improve the situation. Well, it takes it down the scale a little further.

Our concern in the creation of the New Heaven is in the creative cycles which raise things up. We are interested in ascension and what may be done in our association with the creative cycle already operating, which also is interested in ascension. In fact our interest in ascension, if we have it, has been produced by this creative cycle. We have become aware of the fact that there is this power at work to raise things up. Some people react to that by attempting to tear things down. Maybe we ourselves have done a little of that at times, perhaps with respect to each other, not thereby giving much evidence of love one for another.

By the way, when we are handling the particular responsibilities that are brought to us and we find people in difficulties of various sorts, we never rightly indicate that anyone’s difficulties are someone else’s fault. It has nothing to do with somebody else. One can offer what is needful to assist that individual to assume the right attitude and the right responsibility. But you never do anything that would justify that individual in imagining that he was really right with respect to the bad behavior of somebody else being the reason for his own bad behavior. It never is. We are responsible people. This keeps the heat on a person too. And while there needs to be care taken as to how much heat is generated, so that you don’t burn the individual up entirely, nevertheless it is by reason of the intensification of the working of the spirit of God that the creative achievement occurs. This may remind you of something else. It is not by much talk in and of itself. You do not really have to bend somebody’s ear. That is not what is going to get the job done. The less talk there is in such situations the better. There needs to be substance present.

We are responsible in this gathering for the generation of fine substance which will produce fine behavior. And this substance, which should be already present with us to the extent that that is true—then we have this unified substance, refined substance, which enables the action of spirit to occur. Spirit has a medium of expression, and it is our acceptance of the responsibility of providing the essential fine substance that enables spirit to do what needs to be done. It is done by the power of God and not by our own magnificent efforts. Any self-esteem in this regard should dissolve. Self-esteem relates to roles, the ones that we are leaving behind—the idea “I am important because I have this position.” True position is not external. True position may reveal itself in external ways, but one must be an expression of that true position for this to happen. Then something emerges in external form, but the nature of the form will be fitting to the occasion and it will not be a permanently established structure. Perhaps some of you on occasion may have built the structures for yourselves, and then you feel uncomfortable and you blame other people for it. That is not true behavior. We are here to generate the refined substance and let it be blended together, so that we can provide what is necessary for the action of spirit. But it is the action of spirit that does what needs to be done. And we can forget about our self-esteem in this regard.

So we have this fine substance blended together, and the beginning action of spirit—which we have seen in terms of a rider on a white horse, and of the creation of light, the tool that is needful for what subsequently occurs as the creative process continues. And the creative process is described as the firmament, the New Heaven. The composition of this New Heaven is fine substance, a fine atmosphere, a clear atmosphere, a sea of glass clear as crystal. Now this extends beyond us to the extent that it is already present in us. Our responsibility relates to what extends beyond us, if we are participating in the creative process.

Our concern is that there should be ample fine substance into which others may be invited, at the level that is suitable for them. And we are not in the business of judging anymore, so we are not saying of anyone that he or she needs to be at this or that particular level. We don’t know. We are going to find out. And the only way we can find out is to let the creative process work. If we have some pre-established view with respect to people, taking the attitude that “here is a good prospect for the Holy Place”—of course we wouldn’t have couched it probably in those terms, but there is a good Emissary prospect—we immediately put that individual in a structure of our own making. We have so much self-esteem that we imagine that we can determine these things. Well, if we have self-esteem we are playing a role that is not genuine. So we do not structure anyone into anything. Everything is permitted the freedom of revealing what it is. If the revelation is of something very fine, we rejoice. If the revelation is of something very coarse, that does not belong in the New Heaven, in the atmosphere which we are providing, we rejoice too, we let it go. Our concern is with the New Heaven—with this atmosphere, the clarity of it—recognizing that there are properly levels in this substance to which people may rightly relate.

In handling people it may seem on the surface, at times, that we relate to them. It may appear that way to the individual who is being invited into the fine substance which we are providing, because we invite them into a level of that substance where they can feel a sense of relatedness. It was said of the Master, when He was on earth, that he consorted with publicans and sinners. That does not mean that He was a publican or a sinner. It merely meant that those with whom He associated felt comfortable with Him because He provided the substance that was natural to them on the basis of such response as they had. There was no judgment. He was not interested in putting people down. Certainly this is not what we intend at any time. And we need to consider our attitudes and our actions with this in mind.

We have no hesitation about putting the devil down, and sometimes we can do this by talking in general terms. Now, I have done this, certainly, over the years in my services, when I have not zeroed in on any particular person but have spoken of the devil in general terms. When doing this, it may make certain ones who are rather closely associated with the devil in the particular field of which I am speaking uncomfortable. Well that is all right. You are not zeroing in on the person. He has his discomfort all to himself. Of course, very often a reaction may arise and what is being said is rejected, but for those who are in any degree honest, nothing which is offered in this way can genuinely be rejected. A person has to be dishonest to do it. Our concern is not so much with those who are dishonest but with those who give some indication of potential honesty, and we provide space at whatever level is necessary for such, so that they feel a sense of relatedness.

Now obviously, no matter at what level a person may relate, there are always factors, in everyone, of association with the devil, and these things will necessarily need to be dealt with, whether the individual is at the level of the Encampment or the Outer Court. These things will need to be dealt with. Even if a person is going to stay naturally at a fairly low level in the Encampment, these things have to be dealt with if there is to be the experience of the New Heaven insofar as the individual is concerned. One certainly could not hold on to the state of the old heaven and experience the New Heaven.

So there are always things to be relinquished. There is always essential creative change to occur. And while we do not anticipate either inviting or expecting everyone to come into the Holy Place, we also realize that no matter what level they find to be natural to themselves they will necessarily have to come clear at that level. In other words, we are not going to leave a mass of people in the Encampment who are still subject to the devil. “Behold, I make all things new.” This is the creative process. There is a New Heaven, and while there is time given—maybe not all that much more, but time given—for those concerned to come clear within themselves at the level where they are, they most definitely must come clear. Then there is the occupation of the New Heaven; there are people in it. We can provide an atmosphere, we can provide rich substance of a fine nature, but if no one accepts the invitation to come into it the New Heaven remains empty and to that extent remains meaningless.

There are those, obviously, who are responding to the invitation such as it has been thus far. Maybe many of these have been overlooked because there were too many concepts around as to what would indicate here was an emissary. Well, how are we going to define an emissary? Are emissaries those who are of the Priesthood, standing in the Holy Place? Or does the term relate to those who are even in the Outer Court, or perhaps still further afield in the Encampment? I suppose we need to come to the point where we either decide that the emissary relates to everybody within the Encampment, which would include the Outer Court and the Holy Place, or whether it only includes those that are in the Holy Place. From our standpoint everyone who accepts the invitation to come into the New Heaven, at whatever level, is included in the restored state. Now they are not yet restored. There is much to happen yet before that would be true. It is even possible that there is something to happen in us yet.

As we consider these things the distinction between people begins to dissolve. We may have a line around the Encampment, and there are those outside of the Encampment as yet. But if there were not those outside of the Encampment, how could there be anyone to invite in? So that line of demarcation is only a line in the sense of providing a safe place into which people may be invited. It is not there to keep anyone out, or on the other hand to keep anyone in. There is the choice to come in, and if one chose to come in, there is also the choice to go out. Now we have seen this at work in our own small program, ministry. People have moved in, people have moved out. Our attitude rightly is, “Let them come in, let them go out.”

But there must be somewhere to come into, and this “somewhere” is the New Heaven, a real place filled with real substance, but substance which is not all of one level. There is a complete spectrum—the bow, the total spectrum of life. And there is immense detail in that spectrum. This is what makes everything so exciting, doesn’t it? The idea of everyone being equal as meaning that everyone is the same is awful, isn’t it? We all equally have the opportunity of being wherever we might belong, but that does not mean we all belong in the same place. And there are distinctions in this regard. There must be distinctions if there is any design, and we are aware that there is a design. I don’t mean just from the standpoint of the fact that we have physical bodies that are designed in a certain way. But from the standpoint of the whole universe there is a design there of some kind. We may not as human beings understand the significance of it entirely, but there certainly is the evidence of a design. And there is a distinction between the sun and the earth. We should be happy that there is. And there is a distinction between person and person, between angel and angel, and we should be happy that there is. There is a distinction between male and female, and we should be happy that there is this distinction. Nobody can be happy separate from the design as it is in reality. Our happiness, our contentment, our delight, is consequent upon the fact of this design of which we are a part.

Human beings are manipulated in the world as we know it by stirring up their destructive emotions, and there is an inevitable going-down in the process. Our concern is going up. Some considerable consideration was given to this matter of sowing and reaping. Right sowing is important. We have seen this as it relates to the right handling of whatever situations come to us, so that the right seed is sown. We are immediately looking for results. We are going to let the garden grow. But we want to make very sure that we plant the right seed so that what should emerge will. Now this sowing and reaping, cause-effect state, in the earth has been at a very low or coarse level. It has been disconnected from heaven. That is why we are concerned with creating the New Heaven, so that there may be a New Earth connected to it. The New Heaven is not connected to the old earth. There are those who try to make it work that way, but it does not. The New Heaven allows for the emergence of the New Earth, which is not the old earth made over.

In this movement of cause and effect, as true seeds are sown the whole cycle is lifted to a higher level, so that when the harvest comes it will be at a higher level. This is the ascending process—a spiral going up; but it is the whole movement being lifted to new levels, the sowing and reaping going on within the movement. From the standpoint of the human state it is going down and down and down. Cause and effect, sowing and reaping, are going on, but the whole thing is going down, the first heaven and the first earth are passing away. And this can be allowed to happen now because there is, as yet in embryonic form, but nevertheless a New Heaven, with a New Earth relative to that New Heaven. If the New Heaven isn’t very much yet, the New Earth isn’t very much either. But here is our realm of concern. It is not that cause and effect, sowing and reaping, are going to cease. It is just that the whole process, the whole cycle, is being raised up. And it is capable of being raised up to the extent that the New Heaven is a reality. And the New Heaven is a reality because of the fine substance that is present in it.

Now we have some evidence of the New Earth, and therefore of the extent of the New Heaven, when we take a look at the fineness of that New Earth; in other words the fineness of our behavior, the fineness with which we handle whatever it is that comes to us. Heaven and earth are one, and if behavior remains coarse, then clearly there is not very much fine substance. When behavior begins to become fine, then we are made keenly aware of the fact of fine substance. And this fine substance is our responsibility at this present time, as the New Heaven is in the process of being created. And we invite others to participate in this fine substance and therefore to allow their behavior to reflect it. Insofar as they are concerned, our behavior is the evidence of the New Heaven for them. They will not rise up into the experience of that New Heaven themselves unless there is the evidence of it because of us. And if there is the evidence then there is something real, there is something genuine, and the power is present, the power of ascension, or the power of resurrection, raising up.

And let us recognize that power, or the energy with which we are concerned does not originate in the earth. This is the human view. You get it out of the ground somehow, as oil or coal—or looking up into the sky these days to see if something cannot be extracted from the sun. But the source of energy insofar as the human view is concerned is an external one, whether it be in the earth or from the sun, and perhaps there are some other possibilities here if people look around some more. But the real energy is spiritual energy. “And ye shall receive power, after … the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Usually energy is thought of, in the human sense, as being the result of what you eat, because if you eat energy-supplying foods, then you will be big and strong and have lots of energy. It doesn’t always seem to work that way. What you eat certainly plays a part in the operation of your physical form, but if the energy output of your physical form is merely what you eat, then you will experience a continual depletion of energy. Obviously we do not, properly, merely live to eat or eat to live. There is something more to a human being than that.

So while there is the necessity for a functioning physical form, this functioning physical form has something to do. It is there to provide a facility for the action of the spirit of God. It is the action of the spirit of God that is, amongst other things, the life of the physical body and is the power of the physical body. And that power is reflected in the action of the physical body to the extent that there is the fine substance of connection by which the action of the spirit of God becomes a reality. And inherent in that action is all the power that is needed, and if that action comes forth through the facility that is available for it, then the power comes forth. It came down from God out of heaven, it is the experience of the action of spirit, and that is the creative power. And if the universe is operational, it is operational on this basis—it is not a mechanical contrivance—but what is really occurring is far more than merely sustaining either the universe or the individual physical body. Both are present for a far greater purpose.

We find this out ourselves to the extent that we experience the reality of spiritual expression. Then there is power, and we are providing the New Heaven, the substance, into which people can come and participate in the experience of this creative power. Then we no longer need to shop around to obviate this necessity. So we begin to allow the restoration of the true state, the New Heaven and the New Earth, new to us as human beings and new in the nature of its manifestation now, certainly, because it has never been that way before. But not new in the sense that it is not what has been happening in the universe as a whole right along. It just has been excluded from human consciousness and experience, that’s all. Now we are letting it be restored to human consciousness and experience, a New Heaven and a New Earth because there is this fine substance which we care for. We care for it in our own living. We hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is the experience that is known by reason of this New Heaven.

Now we have hungered and thirsted for this as human beings, but we also hunger and thirst as angels for this fulfillment on earth. We love the LORD, we love God, we love the creative process. We love it all, and it is the greatest longing of our hearts that this should be restored to the experience of mankind. And not just for the sake of mankind, but for the LORD. So we share this love and this longing together, and we let it become ever more intense, because in the experience of this intensity is the experience of the power of restoration, the power of resurrection. It is in the intensity of that movement in the expression of the creative power of God, His spirit, that we have a sense of real hungering and thirsting for the resurrection.

We see this mess around us with our eyes, not with our hearts particularly. What we see with our hearts is the resurrection, the restoration. This is the only thing that has any meaning whatsoever, and so all our expression is constantly given to that, and we are concerned that our living should be evidence of the movement of this power. And as we are aware of the movement of this power, we see how it is available, and brings to bear on people what is necessary for them to hear the invitation, to hear the word that is being spoken: “Come into the Encampment. Come into the True State.” And there are those who are willing. There may not be so many of those who will respond according to the ideas that we have had heretofore as to how people behave when they respond. We let them respond in their own ways, at their own levels, and they will come right in. We care for the substance which enfolds them. We let the Garden grow. We do this on the basis of our momentary living, our momentary action, the way we handle what is immediately around us. If that is clear, then it will be clearing at least beyond that; and when beyond that is clear, it will be clearing beyond that again. But unless it is clear at the core it sure is not clear anywhere else. 

I rejoice that we share this time of allowing the creation of the New Heaven, a clarity of experience in our handling of all things. This fine substance needs to be enfolded in our thankfulness. In the world as it has been it could not exist. It has not existed for twenty thousand years anyway, because as soon as anything was generated it was dissipated almost instantly. So we have the responsibility of keeping it in existence, the wealth of the Kingdom.

© emissaries of divine light

36 Years Ago Today

36 Years Ago Today — Martin's Last Service

from  Radiant Light The Transforming Power

Martin Exeter   December 13, 1987 pm

It's good to see your smiling faces.

All is well!

Let your light so shine.

I am the light of the world.

There is just one way, and that is the way of light. And when light is allowed to shine in the realm where the prince of darkness has held sway heretofore, there is what might be described as war. I am sure all of you have had some experience in this regard. I am not talking about this superficial war that constantly goes on in the advertising world, or in the world of politics, or in the world of religion, or in any of the human worlds—I am not talking about that. But when the light begins to shine because you let it shine, all sorts of dark things erupt—there is war in this way. But darkness has no power over light. Why is it that so easily there is a fearful attitude toward the darkness? “It's going to prevail. Oh dear me! It's going to overwhelm me. This darkness is building up all around!” What about letting the light shine, and where did the darkness go? It is the constant radiation of the light that dispels the darkness. It's rather magical, isn't it? Even in a room like this, if you put out all the lights it's dark. Darkness appears to have triumphed. But put on the lights, where did it go? It wasn't anything in the first place.

Let your light so shine. We are reaching a point where we begin to understand what that means: no more fear of the darkness. Many children are afraid of the dark. We have all been children. The easiest way to dispel that fear is to turn on the light. Let your light so shine. I am the light of the world, of my world in particular. If my light shines in my world it's not dark anymore to me. It may be dark to the creatures of darkness round about, but to me, no. This shining of the light comes, as we know, individually speaking. One must let it happen, for oneself. But there begins to be a collective shining of the light in consequence. And the darkness is in the process of being dispelled. Keep the light coming.

What fearful creatures human beings are—I suppose in a way, naturally so; they have been creatures of the dark. We've all been that way and we have suffered so in that darkness: plagues, famine, earthquakes. All these things appear in the darkness. When such things put in an appearance in our own experience, even in our own flesh, what do we do? “Oh dear, this is the darkness! I must go to somebody who will manipulate this darkness so it isn't dark anymore.” That's rather ridiculous, isn't it? Let the light shine—the only thing to be done! But one must do it for oneself. There is a tendency to rush around, find other people who are going to switch on the light somehow for us. No they're not! They may provide momentary alleviation of something to give us the opportunity to let the light shine.

If any of us have moved through difficulties of any kind—environmental difficulties, circumstantial difficulties, difficulties in our own bodies, difficulties of whatever kind—and someone has helped to alleviate whatever they were, one may give thanks for that because one is still on hand to let the light shine. Otherwise any help we receive went for nothing. What happens when these things put in an appearance around us? Do we revert into the old state? Or is there a recognition that the shining of the light is the only way by which wholeness can be restored? The wholeness of our own physical flesh depends upon whether the light shines or not, not upon whether you took your vitamins today. While you are meditating upon the advisability of letting your light shine, the vitamins may be useful. But don't meditate too long!

Let your light so shine. And, as I say, this is an individual matter initially. As the responsibility is taken individually and the light does shine individually, there is no more fear of the darkness. Then there begins to be a collective situation, which we know something about, don't we? As was indicated this morning [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/december-13.html] the multiplication of the shining of the light is exponential in consequence, but it can't happen if we let the light shine a little and then decide to duck back into the darkness. If we have this on-again, off-again situation, the multiplication collectively can't take place—very much at least.

The shining of the light brings forth an awareness of one's own angelic identity, which is the light. The light is present because one still lives, the angelic identity is present. As Lucifer is restored there is the transparency for the revelation on earth of that angelic identity. It comes with the light. I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world because I have a physical form in the world, and through that physical form the light shines. But it reaches the physical form through my mind, through the potential new heaven. As the light shines, the darkness is cast out and there begins to be a new heaven on earth within the body of mankind, a safe place consistently maintained by the shining of the light.

It is the shining of the light that permits creation to occur. Perhaps we would think of that in terms of re-creation, but it's creation. And as there is the clear shining of the light through a unified body, the prince of darkness is cast into the earth. There is no heaven for him anymore, and all power is given to this new heaven present on earth by which the creation occurs. Magic! Magic to the human view. It's been happening all along in a way—as we noted, a very sluggish way—but when Lucifer is in place and the light is borne, behold I come quickly!

The light shines and creation occurs. The light shines in our individual worlds. Whatever your world is, that is available for the shining of the light. It doesn't matter what it is. The foolish idea has been so firmly held by some that they should be somewhere else doing something else. Well in a way I suppose that's true, because they are not doing what they should be doing where they are. The only world anyone has is the world where he is now. It doesn't matter what it is, that's the world; that's where the light needs to shine. It has nothing to do with the seeming circumstances; it doesn't matter how the world may look. If the light isn't shining one doesn't see it anyway. But when the light does shine in that world it will be found to be something entirely different to what one thought it was.

One doesn't need to move anywhere. Let your light so shine exactly where you are! Where else could you let it shine? To say “I will let it shine if I go over there” is a cop-out. If you can't let it shine here you certainly can't let it shine where you are not. Let the light shine exactly where one is. One is there to let the light shine. That's why one is where one is. And when the light shines creation occurs. The light will not shine if one is fussing about where one is, if one is imagining that one should be somewhere else, or doing something else, or that “the folk who are around me in my world are not treating me the way I should be treated,” or whatever it is. All that is beside the point. That is what is seen in the dark. Let the light shine and it's transformed immediately! “Well I'll think about it. Maybe it'll be better tomorrow. I'll be feeling better tomorrow and I'll be able to let the light shine.” Well what will make you feel better, do you think? Staying in the dark? Let your light so shine now. That is always the natural thing to occur. And when it does, all things are made new.

The light is stable. It's always present—sometimes more intense, sometimes less so, but it's always present. There is always that point of orientation. It's obviously there when the sun shines but it's also there when the morning star is present. It provides a point of orientation. The yoke is easy and the burden light. We saw the burden this morning, relating it to the physical form which is somewhat burdensome. That burden, the form of Man, is light. That is the nature and quality of the form of Man. It's fallen quite a ways from that experience. But the light is the creative power; by Him all things were made that are made. There is no problem from the standpoint of the light. The problem has been in the space which has been occupied by satan, but to which Lucifer now returns so that the light is borne.

How quickly the creation occurs as that steadfast light is maintained individually and consequently together. It is maintained individually in spite of pockets of darkness. I don't really know what they would be if the light is shining. The sole concern is to let the light shine. We may have had to be convinced heretofore that we were in the dark. Most people don't imagine that they are in the dark when they are. So one has to be convinced on that point; otherwise it would seem as though there was no need for the light—“Oh I have it already. I see, I know, I have my opinions.” That's the usual attitude: the person insisting that he is in the light when he is in the dark. Well as long as one is in that condition there is no hope. One must come to an awareness that one is in the dark. Then there is the recognition that the light must shine and there is consequently—one would suppose, if there is any intelligence around—a willingness to let the light shine. And behold the darkness vanishes away.

So in every circumstance, in every moment of our living, let your light so shine.

© emissaries of divine light

Let There Be A Firmament

Let  There  Be  A  Firmament

Martin Cecil  April 17, 1980  Assembly

We have been concerned together with allowing the substance that we brought to be blended and to generate a bit more. One of the necessities, if this was to happen, was the relinquishing of past roles. To the extent that these have been maintained it has kept the substance restricted; it wasn't free to move and to blend with the substance of others. It's not just a matter of deciding, “Well now I am going to relinquish my role and I'm going to look at others without pinning any roles upon them.” Each person has been permeated with his or her own role, up to the point of arriving on the scene here, and the role came along too whether you were desirous of relinquishing it or not, because it was a part of what you have been. Yet this needed to be seen so that there could be a deliberate attitude which was willing to allow roles to dissolve. But just because one says, “Well I am willing to leave my role behind,” doesn't mean it was left behind, because all of the roles which you have been playing, some of you for many years, were brought along with you; they are a part of what you have been. So to this degree the substance you brought along wasn't free to blend with the substance of others. It was still being held in the role structure. Gradually this could begin to be relinquished because there was a new feel here to what you were experiencing, which had very little relatedness to what you had known before. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/12/stay-with-white-horse.html]

And so it takes a little while to permit things to be freed up sufficiently to allow for the essential blending of the spiritual substance available to take place. We have all been working with this in these days, and I have particularly been working with it in the sessions that I have been present with you. And we are still working at it. But it is coming freer than it was in the beginning. Where there are those who have been assuming particular responsibility in our ministry, there tend to be stronger roles, and therefore it is seemingly more difficult to dissolve the role so that the substance could come free. In the October session of last year, those who were present were mostly not those who had held primary points of focus, and they did not have such structured roles, and these dissolved very much more easily. This is something that will necessarily have to be dealt with at these Assemblies as there are those who have been playing particular parts in our ministry for some considerable time, because they get locked into their parts and the parts are part of them, and wherever they go they bring the part along with them, whether they want to or not. So this dissolution of structures, in this sense, has been proceeding, and we come to this hour.

As a point of approach, I have been mentioning this matter of the opening of the seals, as recorded in the Book of Revelation, with respect to what happened in the opening of the First Seal. I don't think we will follow it up because we are not interested in following up on the basis of human nature [as it was outlined in Revelation]; we're not going to be concerned with the red horse, succeeded by the black, and the pale—which is an aborted cycle, so we don't intend to move in that direction. But it is well that we should see how people do move in that direction and how we ourselves have been fooled into doing it too. However, there is the right starting point, which relates to this First Seal. I will read the words to you, contained in the first and second verses of the sixth chapter of Revelation:

“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.”

We have seen something of the symbolism as it relates specifically to ourselves. The bow, the spectrum of life represented by the Assembly here, the spectrum of life, the differentiation of white light into its component colors, moving out in one direction that there might be light; and also the representation of the spectrum of life as it has been present in mankind. There is the dual representation here, representing God to man and representing man to God. The spectrum of life has a direct relatedness to the spectrum represented out of human nature. We have specific parts to play as individuals by reason of what comes to point in us out of the mass pattern of human nature. And with respect to that specific point there is a point of color which also comes to focus, but from above, so that the action may occur in the creative process.

All of us together are concerned with light as such—white light. It is inclusive of the spectrum but, to the extent that our substance blends together, we have a basis for the creative Word, “Let there be light.” And there is light. And this is represented in the passage which I read, the means by which the creative action of God comes into the world to deal with what is being offered out of the world because of us, because of our background of earthly heredity.

Now there is the rider on the horse, and we may see this as being particularly brought to focus by the LORD. But also here is the representation of the movement of the creative cycle. This is what is controlling what is happening. To the extent that there are those, us presumably, who are yielded to the creative cycle, then that control keeps coming on through. And the rider has his bow—which is the Assembly—and he has a crown, which is the symbol of authority and perhaps relates more particularly to my authority, the bow to your authority, in this creative process. Here is the manifest evidence of the One who rides upon the white horse. And we share that expression of control, dominion, with that One. We do it on the basis of these two aspects, the bow and the crown. Both indicate authority. The Law works; there are the positive and negative aspects. We allow this operation to occur as we share our times together in this particular fourth hour session. It doesn't stop there, rightly, but it comes to particular focus there.

Now the white horse—a horse indicates power, and white the nature of the spiritual power, the Christ Power, the creative power, which makes possible the creative action at the level where it is needed. It has emerged out of God into heaven, and out of heaven into the earth. Our primary concern relates to this initial creation of the New Heaven. We do not need to fuss too much about the New Earth; tt will come right along if we have the New Heaven present. This creative power also relates to the Word, the Word which is sufficiently imbued with power that when it is spoken the creative action occurs. For instance, “Let there be light,” and there is light. And we share the opportunity of extending that light in the ensuing creative cycle, because the light actually is the power by which we achieve what needs to be achieved. If we are concerned with the creation of the New Heaven, the light is the tool of our creative action in this regard, and the light is inherent in the Word.

So our living, in this hour and consistently, must be on the basis of the Word if the creation of light is to continue. Perhaps the view may have been that, at some particular point, the word “Let there be light” is spoken, and there is light, and it's going to be there thereafter, regardless. But from our standpoint, in this creative process with which we are concerned—in the midst of darkness, incidentally—that light needs to be constantly generated. We are responsible for the light. Our countenances need to shine as the light, so that in all our living there may be this creative tool available for the LORD but in our hands. We provide the LORD with hands in this way.

So we see this symbol of the white horse as certainly representing what occurred on the First Day of Creation. But it also symbolizes what occurs on the Second Day and the Third Day and the Fourth Day, and all the way down the line. There is more on our plate from day to day. No matter where we may be serving, there is always an expanding opportunity in that regard. We trust the LORD in this regard. We begin to have experience, that whatever it is that is brought, we can encompass it, we can handle it. There is far more to be known. We don't try to duck out of the responsibility. We don't continually claim, “Well it's too much.” Human nature claims it's too much; it always will. And we have a good gauge here as to the extent of our association with human nature. What would be too much for God? What would be too much, therefore, for us in representation of God? This seems to put a person on the spot, but all it does really is put human nature on the spot, and that feels like one is being put on the spot if one is identified with human nature.

But if there is an acknowledgment of the true design, and in this setting there is the bow, there is the crown, there is therefore the evidence of the One who rides upon the horse, and there is the fact of the horse. The power is present and available—spiritual power, light, the creative tool—so that we are consistently concerned with maintaining that light, with maintaining clarity. The light has emerged because the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and the light is there because it has had a medium through which to shine. Clarity is what allows the light to be apparent. Now this clarity relates to our own state of consciousness, to our own state of feeling, to our own attitudes in any circumstance in which we may find ourselves.

We may find ourselves in a confused circumstance. The question then arises as to what our attitude will be. I don't think there is any doubt but that we will find ourselves in confused circumstances. The world is a very confused place, and this is our realm of action, so we will be in confused circumstances. What are we going to say, what attitude are we going to take, when this becomes apparent? And it becomes more apparent at times than at other times. What are we going to do? Human nature says, “Well I'm confused.” This is of no concern to us, what human nature says. Our concern is to bring the clarity. In other words, there is a clear place, not only within us—this should have been generated over the years that we have had the opportunity to let it happen—a clear place within us but a clear place beyond us.

This is our movement into the next Word that needs to be spoken, which is “Let there be a firmament.” Let there be clear space in my realm of responsibility, into which none of human nature confusion is allowed to enter. Standing in this clear space, which needs to be beyond us, we may see something of a dividing line beyond which there is the murk and the confusion. We are well aware of the fact that there is confusion, that there is darkness. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness comprehends it not. Beyond this hedge of light there is darkness, uncomprehending of the fact that there is light.

Now we're speaking principally here of conscious comprehension. If factually there is light present because we are here present, on the white horse, providing the One who rides the white horse with His authority on earth, then the light is a reality and it is shining in our vicinity. And yet how many are there who might put in an appearance who are amazed to see this blaze of light? No, they are quite oblivious. They may sense something, feel something, but don't put too much weight in it. They go somewhere else and sense something else somewhere else. So the darkness comprehends not the light, even though it may be present. And we need to make very sure that it is present insofar as our realm of responsibility is concerned, that there is clarity so that it can shine.

This clarity includes our attitude of assurance. No matter what circumstance we may be in, there is a calm assurance there. Sometimes people get so involved with looking at the darkness, the turmoil, the confusion, that they forget that there is this calm space here in between. And pretty soon, if they keep on that way, there won't be any calm space. It will come pressing in. And there are those who have found this happening and become rather frantic in the situation: “Everything is piling up on me.” Oh no it isn't, not if you keep this space around you. Nothing can get close that doesn't belong close. So we deliberately sustain this clarity in our immediate vicinity.

And this is the beginning of the creation of the firmament—not for ourselves; this is a collective thing we are now considering—we would not be able to create it if is wasn't in some measure true individually speaking already. Then we let all this blend together and we have a larger hedge around us of clarity, serenity, tranquility, calmness. What we have called before an atmosphere—the first evidence of the creation of the New Heaven, for which we are responsible. We may create in a particular sense when we are together in person, as we are now, but we are responsible for it just the same in the collective sense, when we are not necessarily together in person. We have a keen sense of responsibility in this regard; and no matter how much there may be a clamoring going on in the confusion round about, trying to get our attention, trying to get our reaction, we recognize that our responsibility is the creation of this New Heaven.

And so we have this New Heaven here. We have seen this in terms of the Holy Place—the Priesthood in the Holy Place. There must be those who stand in the Holy Place, and the Holy Place is all around them. This is the initial creation of the New Heaven—something that is relatively close, one might say. We may have an awareness that, while it is a concentrated atmosphere for us here, that atmosphere is not unknown by others who have been sharing with us this responsibility in the larger sense. There are other true emissaries here and there who have been allowing this to happen, so there is that atmosphere; it is not limited to this right here. But we here are concerned with this, because we are concerned with the creative process for which we are specifically responsible in this Assembly. We have something which is our responsibility in the creative sense, and it also provides us with opportunity to gain experience in the creative process, so that we can easily move into whatever configuration is necessary and let it happen. We let it happen in any case, even if there is no immediately obvious configuration, because we all are a part of the overall pattern of what we have spoken of as the Body. But right now we have some particular creative action to accommodate in this grouping.

“Let there be a firmament.” It pushes back the confused consciousness of mankind so that there is space available—and this space, insofar as we are concerned, is the Holy Place. We have a consciousness of responsibility for the Holy Place as Priests and Priestesses. Our thoughts, our words, our deeds are the vessels for the Temple Service in the Holy Place. And we are very careful with our thoughts and with our words and with our actions, because the primary concern is to maintain this New Heaven, to maintain the Holy Place. The Holy Place is maintained by the right use of the vessels that are present in it, and these vessels are our own thoughts and words and deeds. And if there are others in our vicinity who are not so careful with their thoughts and their words and their deeds, we do not permit this to come into the New Heaven which has been created, into the Holy Place. We do not permit it to come in, because we do not react it. We do not accept it into this space which we are maintaining.

Now the space of the Holy Place is primarily for the Priesthood. The general public are certainly not invited in. But to the extent that there has been this initial creation of the New Heaven—the Core of the New Heaven—here the atmosphere is pure, the atmosphere is strong. Remember the rider on the white horse goes forth conquering and to conquer. Unconquerable life prevails. There is always sufficient strength from within the Holy Place to keep it holy. The only way it can be violated is if we ourselves allow something to come in there by reason of the misbehavior, we will say, of somebody else. The misbehavior of other people is their concern. We don't have to, as Uranda put it, put poison in their tea. We don't have to get on our red horse with a sword and lop off their heads. The Law works—we trust the Law. And if people do misbehave in ways that we don't approve of, they can do it as much as they like out there in the murk, but not in the Holy Place. We keep the Holy Place holy because we ourselves are making right use of the vessels of the Holy Place. Our thoughts are clear, our words are right, and our action is creative, regardless of what anyone else is doing.

So there may be a generation of substance—the substance of connection which allows for the creative spirit of God to work, and it works within the Holy Place, where the substance is. This of course impinges upon this line of demarcation—which will not be actually light on this side and dark on that side—there is a twilight zone, shall we say, in between, giving evidence of the fact that the light is at work relative to the darkness, and twilight puts in an appearance. Our concern then is to let this generation of substance be sufficient to allow for an adequate spectrum of the spirit of God, represented by this light, to move out into the darkness, to expand the New Heaven.

I have used the analogy of the state of affairs with the Israelites, the Tabernacle, the Holy Place in the Tabernacle, and the Outer Court. The Outer Court surrounds the Holy Place; and beyond that again, the Encampment; and beyond the Encampment, the tribes of the earth. Now the New Heaven should extend from the Holy Place through the Outer Court to encompass the Encampment. But you can readily recognize that there is a different level of experience in each of these areas. This is a rather arbitrary division but it illustrates something at least. At the moment, the Holy Place is rather small and the twilight zone doesn't extend that far. The twilight zone represents the continuing creation of the firmament. The starting point is just one point of light in the middle of the darkness, and a little twilight zone around it. But gradually there is an expansion. And we ourselves are participating in a particular aspect of that expansion in this Assembly, so that the atmosphere of the New Heaven may have a widening influence. It must have an absolute influence in the Holy Place. There, it is unconquerable. And we are responsible for letting this extend on out.

If we consider the Outer Court, we may recognize a slightly larger place than the Holy Place. And there is what one might call more leeway in the Outer Court than there is in the Holy Place. There is no leeway whatsoever in the Holy Place. That is absolute. But coming further afield, so to speak, there are those who naturally find themselves associated with the Outer Court. This area is more concerned with mental activity, which, even from the standpoint of human nature, is now considered to include the elite. We're not thinking of it in those terms exactly. But if there is response to the light then there are those who have a certain brightness of mentality who would naturally be enfolded in the Outer Court. The Encampment beyond that again relates to those who are more actively engaged in material pursuits, but who have opened sufficiently to find themselves associating, albeit unconsciously, with what is emanating from the Holy Place.

We ourselves need to see that there are these levels of classification, could we call them, of those who first of all are invited to come into the Encampment out of the mass of humanity. But there must be at least sufficient twilight out there for them to associate themselves with something; otherwise there would be nothing to associate with. And so we have a continuing movement in the creative process, summarized by the words, “Let there be a firmament.” It's not as though we could say, “Ah, now we've got the firmament”—not half of one percent of it. There is a continuing process.

This continuing process relates very much to association in ministry in the world—coming out to begin to deal with people in the world. Remember we are dealing with people. This simplifies things a lot, if you will let it be that way, because most people don't think of people but think of what it is they are associated with. They think of the structure in which the people are caught. We are not interested in the structure. We are interested in the people, not in all these cults with which they are associated. And all human beings are associated with cults. We are concerned with people and with serving them. And it doesn't matter really where they may happen to be. We can look at the structures in which they are caught and become very critical of such things. But if we do that, then that is tantamount to being very critical of the people who are caught in those things. We are not interested in laying criticism on people, but in opening a door so that they may come clear of the structures in which they have been caught.

This doesn't mean that we say to a person who is, whatever, Roman Catholic, “Well you've got to get out of that.” No, let them stay in there until they can't stay there any longer. A person gets big enough spiritually speaking and he can't stay in the cramped quarters anymore, so he must come out, one way or another. And when there is this happening with a person you may assist them to come out as easily as possible, so that they don't get scraped and bruised coming out. But that doesn't mean that you are condemning the thing out of which they are coming. You are not condemning anything. You are welcoming someone into the Encampment. Of course we need to have an Encampment into which they may be welcomed. We don't welcome them immediately into the Holy Place. That wouldn't be wise, would it? It wouldn't stay holy long. So there are other areas into which people may come, suitable to their own level and their own spiritual competence.

All this is part of the creation of the New Heaven. We may envision, possibly, that all who are outside of the Encampment will eventually be inside the Encampment or nowhere. In other words, the Encampment and all that is within the Encampment will be all there is on earth. In such case, all the various structures that human beings maintain now will have gone. But some people will still be there; they didn't go with the structures. There will doubtless be many who go with the structures. But our concern is the creation of the New Heaven, sufficiently complete, sufficiently large, so that all may be invited to come in. Thus far such creation of the New Heaven as there has been has been a rather narrow place. It needs to expand. And as it expands we don't expect people to conform to some view of how they should be if they were in the Holy Place. The point is they are not in the Holy Place, so they don't have to be that way. And anyway the view is probably false in the first place.

There is by far the greatest space in the Encampment. There is by far the greatest leeway in the Encampment, for people. We let them be free there. Of course there is a limit which surrounds the Encampment, but there is a lot more room within the Encampment than there is within the Outer Court. Those who properly find themselves associating with the Outer Court discover that there is a greater discipline required there. As I say, coming into the Holy Place there is no leeway at all. It is absolute. Out of the Holy Place the rider on the white horse goes forth conquering and to conquer: something absolute, no weakness. So we let people find their own level, and we don't imagine that everybody has to be crammed somehow into the Holy Place. It would be very uncomfortable, and wouldn't be possible anyway.

So we learn to leave people alone while encompassing them in the New Heaven which we create for them. We have a far larger view of the nature of the New Heaven than perhaps we have had heretofore. It is quite capable of encompassing all people. And we should be diligent about the creation of it with the tool of light, so that it is sufficiently expanded—largely twilight in its outer extent—but sufficiently expanded for people to begin to feel at home, out of the darkness but in the twilight. And our responsibility is to enfold them and to encompass them. We do not have to know, necessarily, who they are. Presumably we will know very few samples of that Encampment pattern directly. But we provide space. And as we participate in the creation of the New Heaven, we discover at the same time how to do this, and how we may effectively invite those who have whatever measure of response to move out of the darkness, first of all into the twilight. Some, come quickly through the twilight right to the Holy Place. But we don't anticipate many doing that. We don't need that many. It would tend to become cumbersome if we had too many. So, like Gideon, we are quite content with three hundred or whatever it is. Here, we begin to move together toward the greater action necessary in the creative process. The power is there. It's with us. And when we are with it, we share it, and it gets the job done. Remember the attitude of thankfulness.

© emissaries of divine light