The Time of Your Life

New Mindset ... New Results

ASSUME

Pearl of Great Price

G-d is a Verb

Faith

                 I see on Facebook and other Social Media people professing their faith, mostly Christians, but a few others as well.  It seems Christians are the ones most willing to publicly declare their faith.  I seldom ever respond or is it "Like" these statements of faith on Social Media; mostly I will reluctantly click a "Like" if it is someone who is a family member of mine or someone I know personally outside of Social Media.  But mostly I just "Hide" the post on my page.

                Of course, we are all aware that whatever we place our faith in is a choice; and there are a multitude of choices to be made in regards to who or what we have faith in.  The masses of people, it seems, rely on their parents or their family traditions to make the choice of what or who to put their faith in.  There are those, and this is becoming a larger number of people, who choose to ignore faith practices altogether.  Personally, I think life would be more than hard if we have nothing to believe in but what we can see, hear, feel, taste and touch; but that's me.  Our goal then is to learn how to use our affirmative faith in the most effective way.

                This is what the American Mystic Ernest Holmes wrote about faith in The Science of Mind:  "The Universe is a Spiritual System. Its laws are those of intelligence.  We approach this Reality through the mind, which enables us to know, will, and act.  Prayer, faith and belief are closely related mental attitudes.
                  Prayer is a mental approach to Reality.  It is not the symbol but "the idea symbolized" that makers prayer effective.  Some prayers are more effective than others.  Some only help us to endure, while others transcend conditions, and demonstrate an invisible law which has power over the visible.  In so far as our prayer is affirmative, it is creative of the desired results."
              
                First of all, we must be firm in our awareness that "G-d is no respecter of persons" and if we aren't this will most likely trip us up when it comes to prayer.  By this, I mean, we cannot pray the "free will" away from anyone, no matter how much we believe that what we pray for them is for their good.  The genius of Ernest Holmes' statement is "the idea symbolized" as this is how the Universe responds to us by corresponding to our affirmative prayer.  When we pray, which means to ask affirmatively, for something; i.e. a relationship or marriage or a promotion at work, or for just about anything, we should never personalize our prayer to a person, place or thing.  We should affirm that which the "idea symbolizes."  In other words, affirm that we are in a delightfully happy and harmonious marriage, or a success in the work that we love, or whatever it is ... but keep our mind off the details.  That perfect marriage may be to someone we have yet to meet even if we are so in love with someone, or it may be the someone we are so in love with.  That promotion at work may take us into work that we are unaware of and might find less than appealing, or maybe the promotion will open doors of opportunity that bring us an even greater success.

                Effective prayers or affirmations are the result of the consciousness of the person who is praying or affirming and their awareness of the Truth. It takes an objective mind to use mental laws effectively.  As the Master Mind Jesus stated "it rains on the good and the bad alike" ... or like gravity, the Creative Intelligence is no respecter of persons,  so we must loose the idea that our prayer or affirmation will not demonstrate and instead believe that it will if we follow the laws of the Universe.

resurrection of the Christ within

           

These mystical words are from The Science of Mind: "To practice the Presence of G-d is to awaken within us the Christ Consciousness.  Christ is G-d in the soul of mankind.  The resurrection is the death of the belief that we are separated from G-d.  For death is to the illusion alone and not to Reality.  G-d did not die.  What happened was that mankind awoke to Life.  The awakening must be on the part of mankind since G-d already is Life.
                To practice the Presence of the Divine in others is to practice mental healing for it is a recognition of this Divine Presence which heals.  All the words used in the process of healing are for the purpose of building up the realization that “I Am is in the midst of thee.”

           We have, at least not the majority of us, have learned from our first days on this planet that we are part of the Divine.  Our intelligence, power of choice and mind is a unique individualization of the Intelligence, Power and Spirit we call G-d for lack of a better word.  To realize that G-d is omnipresent; that is, everywhere present and present in everything is to understand Life to the highest degree.  Most of us have had moments when we have had this realization but only a few have held this realization in mind every day, all day.  The Master Mind Jesus was one of the few, as was the Buddha, Krishna and Paramahansa Yogananda.  Others have held this realization to the degree that it created within them the ability to heal themselves and others consistently; Thomas Troward, Mary Baker Eddy, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Dr. Joseph Murphy, Joel Goldsmith, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, Ernest Holmes and W. Frederic Keeler to name a few. Each knew in consciousness that "I Am is in the midst of thee" meant the Divine was within them and they could make use of this Power and Intelligence to heal.  We all have this ability to have this awareness of the Divine within to the degree that through the power of our mind we can heal ourselves and heal others, although our ability to do so may not be as consistent has those previously referred to.
               
               “... in the beginning G-d made mankind perfect, but mankind has sought out many inventions.” It very boldly declares that death and resurrection are inventions of the human mind and not a decree of the Almighty. Referring to Adam and to Christ, the Bible says, “The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” And when the disciples of Jesus asked him, “What is G-d’s relationship to the dead?” he replied, “G-d is not a G-d of the dead but of the living, for in G-d's sight all are alive.” In other words, the Bible clearly states that we are living in a spiritual Universe, governed by mental laws; that there is an action of Consciousness, as Law, upon Substance, forever producing form, and forever withdrawing from any particular form, thus producing another; that the form changes but the Formless never." ... from the mystical Ernest Holmes' Science of Mind.

             In these few words Ernest Holmes is telling us an eternal and immutable Truth; Life can never die, that death and resurrection are of the human mind but in the Omnipresence of G-d Life, our life and all life, is eternal; both here and in the hereafter.

             Ernest Holmes further tells us ... "the Cosmic Order is the Divine Mind; the Universe in which we live is a Spiritual System; we are spiritual beings but we do not know it, we do not understand it. In our ignorance we misuse our divinity without changing or destroying it. We can never change Reality, cannot destroy It nor break Its laws; but we place ourselves in such a position to It that It appears limited and unhappy and even appears to die. “By mankind came death, by mankind came also the resurrection of the dead.” What is this but stating that mankind figured out how to die and how to be born again? G-d had nothing to do with it, because G-d “is not a G-d of the dead but of the living: for all live unto G-d.”  We are, therefore, members of the Universe, and being members of that which unites everything, we are some part of each other!  “I Am the vine and we are the branches...”  Jesus’ words were symbols of the Universe in which we live."

             The Master Mind Jesus couldn't have said it better.  We are all connected to G-d and in turn connected to each other.  There is only One Life, that Life is G-d and that Life is ours eternally.  Resurrect then takes place in our mind.  We resurrect our health through the power of our mind.  We create success through the power of our mind.  Through the power of our mind we choose to be happy or to be miserable.  The spirit within us is the Christ within us; that part of G-d Intelligence, Power and Spirit that is ours to use to sustain and maintain the life of our choosing.

Keep the Faith!
Henry Lee Bates
(Reverend Dr.)