Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture

Chapter - Treatment

No one has a personal message. There is no such thing as a messenger of God. God is His own messenger and He appears to human consciousness at that moment's demonstration. He has appeared as many great thinkers and always in the way that you, as a human person, can comprehend.

Every one of us, whether in the business or professional world or any of the arts is trusted with a doctrine not our own. Originality of ideas is not ours; it is God, individual Mind. There is a fullness and completeness awaiting each person. We are here as the presence of God, fulfilling God's destiny. Every one is an individualization of the infinity of God.

No one can be without opportunity. One of the greatest lessons in this connection is found in the Bible, I Kings 19. Elijah, the only prophet not slain, has fled for his life and is hiding in a cave. The hopelessness of the situation seems to overwhelm Elijah. Here he is the only prophet of God left; his people have forsaken the covenant and have thrown down the altars. To Elijah there certainly seemed to be no opportunity left for him but to die. But in turning to God, what were his instructions? "Go, return on thy way . . . I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him." So it is with each one of us. There is never a lack of opportunity when it is seen as God's opportunity of presenting Himself to the "seven thousand" that He has saved out for Himself. Then there is no need for envy, jealousy, rivalry or competition, because there is infinity of good which God has saved out for Himself. The moment you present God, the audience is universal.

We learn to let good, let Mind, assume its responsibilities. As we learn to listen for that still, small voice, we, too, will be led to where our work, recognition and compensation are to be found. Cultivate the consciousness of the presence of God every moment.

Until you begin to see God in every form everywhere, you are seeing something apart from God. "The man that I see is the man that I be." The universe returns to us our concepts as we express them. As long as we see error as externalized condition, we fight it, but when we see it as illusion, we get rid of it -- it disappears.

Regardless of who asks for help, or what the nature of the claim, the first thing to remember is that your realization has nothing to do with a person, place or thing "out there;" but you are being tempted to accept a person or condition apart from God's own being.

When the call comes for help, immediately recognize that you are being tempted to accept a selfhood apart from God, or a condition unlike good, therefore, you must now work with yourself. You must accept yourself as the patient and you must heal yourself of the belief of a selfhood or condition apart from God. You must accept yourself as the patient and or condition apart from God. You must realize that the entire human scene, good or evil, is the finite sense of Reality. You are not being called upon to separate tracks, even thought they appear to come together; you are not be called upon to lift the sky off the mountain, even though the sky appears to be sitting there. You are to realize that sin, disease, lack, even death, is a mirage. And, no mirage ever wet the dry sands of the desert.

Do not ask your patient to do anything for the purpose of helping to heal him. The patient is the very presence of God, all the time and when we recognize that we are being presented with the illusion of sickness or sin, that we are not trying to heal some one or save some one, then right from the first moment we are recognizing that there is only the presence of God, and that what is coming to us as suggestion is only illusion.

You defeat your own realization if you go outside your own consciousness for help. You may recommend any book, pamphlet, lecture, or other reading, for the inspiration it gives, or for the knowledge of Truth it imparts, but never claim that any of these will help in healing. Never discourage or urge church attendance or membership. Each one must work out his own salvation at the point of consciousness where he finds himself. Your healing work is done within your own being and is not dependent on what the so-called patient does or thinks.

Be free in imparting Truth to those eager for it and who are capable of listening. Never permit discussion or argument -- never try to convince. If the friend, seeker, or patient cannot quickly listen and accept, stop at once. This does not mean that we cannot answer questions -- we are eager to do that -- but one will not argue, discuss, or try to convince. Just as receptivity is your greatest spiritual quality, so must it be in those who come to you.

How much treating should you do in any case? When you "feel" within you that the work is done, you will not be able to do more, and you will "stand'" in your treatment. Be guided by your inner feelings. If you are keeping y our consciousness clear, you will often give no further treatment beyond assuring the patient that you will help immediately. You will intuitively know whether anything further is necessary. Never promise to help later or at any specific time, but always immediately. The "I" of you is a present help to any situation. Even if you cannot stop to do anything further, you can instantly know that no healing is to be done -- all is -- I AM -- nothing in the future can be accomplished. Healing is not something you are going to do -- healing is the realization of perfection now -- the "feel" of the Christ within you. The demand for help is never on the personal you, but on the I THAT I AM, which is likewise the "I" of the so-called patient. That "I" is ever with him, even as it is with you, and you can trust him to the "I" of his own being -- the one, universal I THAT I AM.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4: 18, 19).

The Spirit of the Lord (the consciousness of the presence of the law of god) is within my awareness -- within my consciousness -- a part of my conscious being. He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor (its mission or function is to enlighten or spiritually enrich me).

He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted (its mission, likewise, is to replace erroneous beliefs with perfect ideas of Truth and Life; to provide the awareness of Love where a sense of its absence seems to be; to establish in me the conscious awareness of Love's presence).

To preach deliverance to the captives of sense: to free me from the bondage of sense testimony; to deliver me from the belief that tracks come together or skies sit on mountains or that the desert mirage has substance or reality; to bring spiritual freedom where material bondage of any nature touches individual being.

Recovering of sight to the blind: giving spiritual vision, spiritual discernment, in place of a limited sense or material concept.

To set at liberty them that are bruised: (where finite sense has produced impairment, this Christ Consciousness of me is to be the presence and power of healing, regeneration and resurrection).

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord: to teach me the God Consciousness or to be to me the Comforter.

Prayer is not what goes from the individual to God -- but that which comes from God, the universal, to the individual consciousness. Prayer is the Word of God which comes to you in Silence.

All the human thinking you can do will not help anyone in this world -- nor will it harm anyone.

What is the relationship between practitioner, patient and God? Unless we have a clear understanding of this, we will have difficulty with healings and with our work for other people. Nothing goes from the practitioner to God or from the practitioner to the patient. God, practitioner and patient are all one. If they were not, there would be mediation, intercession, a finite and the infinite. There is one, God. Whenever we are tempted to think that we are something less than God, we are insulting God, or throwing dust in the face of infinity.

The only thing that is taking place in a treatment is the practitioner's realization that all there is present is God; all there is that is power is God. God is appearing as a practitioner, as a patient, but always only one and that one is God. Until the three become one, the treatment is not complete; as long as there is a sense of duality, the treatment is not complete.

Treatment is a realization of God's allness. There cannot be many, but only one -- one appearing as many. We will have the belief in God and you as long as we misunderstand this Principle. I AM Life, Soul. My body is its manifestation or expression, but still always one -- one as wood and table inseparable indivisible. Without wood there would be no table.

The only reason for any treatment is a belief in duality. We turn within to re-establish our sense of oneness. We have come into the belief that I and the Father are two. We must get back to the realization of oneness. If for any reason I seem to be separated from my good health -- health -- harmony -- wealth, the cure is to get back to the Principle of oneness. The reason we lose our sense of oneness is because of a universal sense of mesmerism. All forms of daily life are presenting pictures of good and evil -- newspapers, pictures, novels, etc. All of separation, discord, lack. Re-establish the sense of oneness -- this is all there is to meditation or treatment.

You will not be successful as long as you are living a dual existence. You must not look for a power outside of yourself. You must not accept the belief that there is an evil power, or look for a good power to act upon you or upon your affairs. You are the law, the Principle of your being and body. The moment you realize that oneness, you have infinity flowing through you. No power outside of you is going to act upon your business, work or demonstration. There is no power sitting around waiting to find you a house to live in, or a job to fill. If there were, it would be a sad world indeed. You, yourself, are the Law, but that law is only law as you realize it within your being -- that is, as you get the "feel" of your oneness with God. As a human being, you are not the Law, because if you were, every other human in the world would be, too, and then there would be no discord. If as humans, we were one with the Law, there would be no wars on the earth. But to the contrary, having set up this belief of humanhood, we have set up errors with it.

Treatment is realization, prayer, communion. When realization happens within, the whole outer picture changes. All affirmations are waste motion unless accompanied with realization. You do not have to name the disease or person; you do not have to tell God whether the demonstration is physical, moral or financial; you do not have to voice anything. All you have to do is "be still" -- go into the secret place of the most high (your own consciousness) and realize again your oneness with God until a responsive "feeling" comes to you -- a sense of awareness.

In meditation, everyone's experience is different. That is why we need meditation. Do not, though tell even your best friend about your joys in meditation. It is your secret, your relationship with God, the most sacred relationship in the world, and it should not be shared with anyone. It is yours alone; no one else can really respond to it. True, what blesses one blesses all; but this is a state of consciousness and no two are on just the same level of demonstration. Let fruitage be seen, not talked about. No one has to go around saying he is a millionaire, or that he is joyous and happy; if can be seen in his walk, his attitude, his clothes. So, to refrain from voicing your experiences is wisdom.

Oneness appears to us as harmony. It is universal Life, one Mind, and this Life is individualized as you. In duality we have health and sickness, abundance and lack, life and death. As long as there is duality, you cannot avoid these opposites. Only in realization of oneness of the divine Life expressing Itself as you, can you look forward to eternal life; only in the realization that you are joint-heirs with Christ in God to all the heavenly riches, can you know abundance. All of the infinity of God appears as you. If it were in me, it could possibly find an outlet and get out of me. Therefore, Truth appears as me, as you. Then when we say, "The kingdom of God is within you," we understand it to mean, that the kingdom is appearing as you. Otherwise, the infinity of God good, would be finite. The Christ is appearing as Jesus. This is unfoldment and is universal.

It would be selfish if we merely took this home for our own purposes only, or did not use it at all. None of this is intended to increase the amount of truth you know, but all of it is intended as Truth revealing more of God to the world.

There is no limit to what we can do in the realization of our oneness with God. I, of myself, can do nothing, but the moment the demand is mad on me and I realize that I am joint-heir with Christ in God, in that proportion can I do just the same as Jesus did.

With all of the human good we can express, we can still be slaves. Regardless of how much physical health or wealth we might have, we are still slaves to physical and economic laws until such time as we make the transition from physical sense to spiritual consciousness. In the economic and physical world, we are up against the belief that we are getting old, and so find age a great problem. We do no overcome this until we have advanced beyond just increasing human good, and come to a point of realizing our spiritual identity. There must be a transition from the material sense of existence to spiritual existence. That is the aim and object of all spiritual study.

The reason many spiritual seers and holy men have ended up in poverty or disease is that they always considered there was a God and themselves. They were looking to God for something, instead of realizing I AM.

If Life is self-sustained, then why go around worrying, doubting or fearing it. I am Life eternal. A God in heaven does us no good -- we must feel it inside. There is no error except the belief in separation from God. Duality is the only devil.

"It is mental quackery to make disease a reality -- to hold it as something seen and felt -- and then to attempt to cure through Mind." (Science and Health). Mary Baker Eddy's place in history will be based on her revelation of the nature and character of error -- that it is illusion, hypnotism, mesmerism. Then we do not have to fight it. Just know it is a mirage, then forget it. "Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with sudden dismissal." (Ibid.)

Mirage is your belief that what is appearing is other than God appearing. Whatever is appearing can only be God-reality itself appearing. The illusion is in the misinterpretation of what is "out there." Illusion is your concept of the manifestation of God; illusion is the belief that it has power to harm. It can't, because it is God appearing and any sense that it is not is the illusion. We must remember that the illusion is not "out there," but only in the misperception of reality itself. Only as we see this, can we begin to see that there is noting and no one to be healed saved or changed.

I exist as consciousness; therefore, nothing comes to me except as consciousness and whatever is in or of my consciousness is good, and I will not be convinced that it is evil.

There is no such thing as personal error. I have no right to condemn or be condemned. Any sense of error is always a universal belief to which I am being subjected. Anything that is universal belief can be overcome or thrown off. Know that you cannot be used as an avenue or channel of expression for these universal beliefs, because only God, good appears as you. This is true of any temptation of form which is a universal claim. We are merely being used as targets or victims. We want to overcome the belief or illusion that there is something there of a nature opposed to God. We then translate the thing into its rightful use.

We must realize our oneness with God from the moment we awaken in the morning. Anything in the world can become a poison or injury -- that is the way of human belief. Dualism is a very wonderful thing to the human sense. We are breaking down duality. Either there is good and evil, or there is not. But we know that God is the only power; there are no lesser powers; there is no substance apart from God; there is no being apart included in the infinite Godhead. Duality is the only devil we have. "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:" (Isaiah 45:5).

The Hindu "Aum" and the Biblical "Amen" originally meant," I AM." The very pronouncing was supposed to have healing power.

I already AM, "whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" When the I AM voices itself to us, the human selfhood disappears. Our humanhood must not be exalted into thinking it is God.

The "future" is duality and, therefore, is the devil. Any affirmation or denial, written or spoken, that has for its object correcting, improving, healing or getting something is just a waste of time. All any argument is a reminder of that eternal Truth which is now. Right where desire is, manifestation must be.

Now, let us realize the idea of spiritual health, of spiritual joy, of spiritual peace; let us be done with health in the physical realm, or supply of a physical nature, or the material sense of good; let us stop resting in the human sense of good, in the human modes of good.

If we do not now make the transition into the richer sense of life and health, the healing work cannot take on its highest sense.

The healing of physical conditions is no different when done metaphysically than physically unless it is accomplished through the realization of the spiritual nature of Life, Mind, body harmony, health and dominion. The mental or physical sense of dominion is not our aim. Our purpose is the realization of a spiritual sense of existence and we cannot be satisfied with anything less.

The time has come to make the transition from healing matter from healing physical discords, to realization of the spiritual harmony of being -- to the spiritual sense of supply -- to the spiritual sense of joy and peace and dominion. Joy in the Spirit is entirely different thing from acquisition of money or fame. The spiritual sense of health is something far beyond a heart beating a normal rate of speed. Eternal Life is not found in the physical realm; neither is infinite supply found in the physical realm, not the continuous sense of joy or peace or dominion. Therefore, until we rise above this physical sense of existence, we cannot find the eternal or immortal good we are seeking. In the world where human betterment is the rule and the goal, there is also the sense of health and sickness, wealth and poverty -- the opposites, in other words -- and one may have one today and the other tomorrow. While in the spiritual consciousness of existence, there is only the continuity of good.

Healings now should no longer be a matter of mental power, of mental struggle, of mental striving, of mental effort -- healings should be a matter of Grace with you. The time is long past for you to be struggling for a healing; you must have arrived at that state of consciousness in which healings are accomplished through Grace -- through Love -- with just a smile.

When you understand that only the Mind of you governs and controls your affairs -- when you understand that nothing outside of you acts upon you or upon your supply, your health or you body, that everything that is occurring to you is occurring as a direct result of your own state of consciousness, then you can begin to correct whatever is wrong in your affairs in the same way you can become a law unto your affairs and unto all who turn to you for help. You do not have to go through affirmations and denials; you have to cultivate spiritual discernment, and then this spiritual discernment results or acts upon your affairs to bring out harmony and peace and prosperity.

In the same way, in proportion as you have a material state of consciousness, in proportion as you believe in matter as real, in that proportion will that material state of consciousness of yours act erroneously and injuriously upon your affairs. To bring out harmony means to spiritualize your thought. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."

There is that which is invisible to material sense, even invisible to the intellect, but tangible and real to those of inner vision -- of spiritual consciousness. It is called the Christ -- the Presence -- the Spirit within -- and by many other terms. Actually; it is the reality of your being or Inner Self. Its function is to go before you to make the crooked places straight; to be the green pastures and the still water of your existence; to be the Everlasting Arms -- the Shadow of the Almighty. It is that which provides manna in the desert; it brings forth water out of the rocks; it closes the mouths of lions; it makes the burning flames of no power; it is the intelligence of your being; it provides for you and in you the answer to every problem. Having recourse to this Inner Presence you are eternally and intelligently governed and sustained regardless of human conditions. Without it you are as a cork on the ocean buffeted by every breeze and every wavelet. With it, you are the wave upheld by the ocean itself, empowered by all the energy of the sea of Life. Without it you are the victim of circumstance and person. With it, you are the captain of your own soul, master of your destiny.

Material sense will never reveal the permanent harmony of being. Intuition is the spiritual faculty -- is the spiritual quality. We develop this spiritual sense as we learn to put off the old man who judges by appearance and gain the new man who intuitively perceives the reality behind the mask of personality. Those who do not yet know the Inner Self wear the mask of self-protection, self-importance, self-defense -- only until they learn that God is their real Being and needs no artificial aids.

Men steal because they do not know that they embody their good, they carry Bibles with steel linings because they do not know that the Word is their sufficient protection. They protect the Word itself with steel plates. This is tragic, and sometimes we too try to protect ourselves with words and statements, instead of knowing that the Word itself in Silence is our very Life.



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