GOD, THE ONE SOURCE

God, being the source of all life, must necessarily be the source of health. Health is the pure inflow of Creative Life coming to us freely for the free operation of all our powers. Life in its fullest and freest sense is synonymous with health. God is the source of all life, the fountain of health.

There are few people who do not believe in God. But the conception of God varies largely with the individual.

God exists in all created things. The word ex-ist means a standing forth out of, or a manifestation of, being. As the scientist have reduced all energy to the atom and this to the etheric principle we can see how God dwells in and composes all things. He manifests Himself in man, in life, mental, physical and spiritual. Even the least religious person realises that there is an area in the soul in which God can be felt.

God is the Principle of Life in and through all nature. He is immanent (indwelling) in all created things. These are expressions of God, the projection of God's thought into visible form. Hence, man in a manifestation or expression of the Divine Idea of Man, and here we must refer to the Mosaic account of Creation, where- in we are told that God made Man in His own image and likeness.

This does not mean, that we are imaged in God's form physically, or have a likeness to Him corporeally, for our physical formation is entirely designed as an equipment for earthly requirements. But it means that we are made in God's image and likeness spiritually -- we are all emanations of the Divine Spirit.

The Divine Principle is self-manifesting in Law, and as such can be and is in all things created and uncreated. It permeates the Universe. In personalising God we are certain to err because of our conception of personality. We limit the Infinite in its powers and operations. The poet tells us that to the one who sees God in nature every bush is a burning bush and the ground on which he stands is holy. And we know that the statement is true. God's omnipresence would be impossible were He a person. This view takes nothing away from that which regards God as person merely. It adds scope and distance to that concept, which has been limited. It explains what before one could not well understand.

It was this image that Jesus sought to impress on our consciousness. For while we can understand God best as Principle we cannot apprehend Him as principle solely, since principle is not sentient, whereas God is both Principle and Consciousness. God has created nothing that is not in Himself.

Many people may regard this as cold and abstruse view of God, whom they consider humanly as a tender, loving Father. But there is no other way in which He can be apprehended because He is Spirit; His Being is on a plane totally different from ours.

One revelation of God's presence or power within the individual soul is worth all the books ever written so far as that one person is concerned. If every person who believes in God were asked as to the cause of his or her belief the answer would be: I believe there is a God because He has manifested Himself to me. I have felt God within me."

IMMEDIACY

...seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Luke 12:31

Every person is responsible for the stewardship of his life. That we are conscious beings means we have to take this precious gift and develop its potentials. We have to exercise faith in an eternal Good even in the midst of changing circumstances. Our stewardship is to let the Divine attributes come into fruition through our thoughts, word, and deed. The wonder of life is that we can look upon beauty, we can sense what is wise. We have an infinite Intelligence within ourselves we can use positively and constructively, and which will lead us into the ways that are peaceful, wholesome, and right for our expressions.

Our faith must have an immediacy about it in order to keep it vital. It should prod us to extend our living into ever new realisations of God; we should step beyond today's experience with new courage, widen our horizons of concern through loving, healing action.

The great Biblical commandments always point us toward God's perfect creative and healing Power in our lives; our part is to accept It. Let us tend our lives with prayer, meditation, and practice; water well with sincerity, prune with honesty, harvest with joy, and share.

I am indwelt by the Divine Wholeness, and accept today every
quality that makes for my complete wellbeing- physically,
mentally,and materially. I let love and peace and joy
permeates every activity and extend their healing action
to all whom I meet.

USING FAITH TO BETTER ADVANTAGE IN OUR LIVES

Firstly we should begin with the idea that we are One with Universal Mind and therefore we are united with Its creative action, which does things to us and for us by doing them through our consciousness. This creative action we think of as Law, or the Power that acts.

Next, we should consider that we are also centers of self-conscious awareness, individualisation of this Mind, with the ability to think, to choose, and to know; and that according to the sum total of all our thoughts we are either attracting good to us or repelling an acceptance of that good.

Let us start to develop and use the first idea; We are already One with the universal Mind, and its creative Power can do anything. This is the basis of dynamic faith and of all effective prayer; and since prayers have been answered, we may accept that this is certain. It is why Jesus told us that when we pray we are to believe we have what we desire. He implied that there is that can, will, and must react to us. It has no choice other than to react to us, in an affirmative manner if that is the way we think.

That is why it is that when we pray or meditate we must do so affirmatively, and we must do so in the present tense. We must say or think of our desire as taking place now. Up to the time of Jesus, people believed that God might help them; that there were concessions He might make if people pleased Him, or performed certain rites of ceremonies. Jesus brought a new kind of teaching - today we call it "affirmative thinking:. He talked about a Power that operates on our belief the way we believe it; and that we may see definite results or our belief in our experience.

We find that faith must be an affirmative belief. There is a Power that operates upon our thought the way we think it, and we can use our faith consciously and definitely and intelligently and for specific purposes. When we do, we should expect something to happen, and we are not to deny it in the meantime!

The Law can bring us only as much good as we can mentally accept. This accepting is an act of our own consciousness; it is an act of faith. There must be an acceptance in our mind, a belief within our own consciousness, a belief that does not deny itself. It is a belief that say, "It is so".

Perhaps we ask for something, or accept something, or affirm something, and then it seems as though we are not going to get it. We must continue to know that we are dealing with Power that causes the invisible to become visible! We are creating a pattern upon which the creative Power is always acting. this is one of the greatest ideas concerning thought, but we seem to overlook its full and complete meaning.

Realise we are thinking, choosing centers of awareness in this Mind; and according to the sum total of all our thoughts, we are either silently attracting good or repelling it from us.

Let us consider certain attitudes of thought that ought to be salutary. For instance, the necessity of having an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is not a virtue but it also is part of practical philosophy of daily life. There is no wiser way of living than to remember every morning what Life has given us, and to lift up our thoughts in thankfulness for every bounty we possess.

We occasionally need to put ourselves on a strict regiment, in which we would speak no negative word; refrain from faultfinding or condemnation of anyone or anything.

It is the sum total of our thinking that we need to consider; and in doing this one of the first things to learn is that about ninety percent of our thinking is entirely subconscious - we are not aware of it while it goes on. Our success or failure in life is largely a subconscious process, and of course our happiness or misery is almost entirely so.

Scientific investigation verifies that you and I are talking about a reality. Most of our thought processes are subconscious. Here is where the habit patterns are caught and laid down, even from infancy. It should be our purpose to find out what these thought patterns are; and when they are unhappy, morbid, or filled with fear, change them in order that the natural, normal flow of Life Itself shall be resumed.

Now we have the basis premises developed to where we can use them, because we know what we are doing, and so we come the third idea:

We can change our thinking, and by so doing enable the Law, the invisible creative Force, to act for us in an affirmative rather than in a negative way.

Jesus gave us a technique that when we pray we should enter the closet of the self, close the door of the senses, and make known our request. We must affirm the good and forget the negative. When we do this, we should be certain that we accept the answer, and know we are going to receive it.

When we pray we must believe that we have, and we shall have. We actually can change our thinking and permit the Law to give us freedom.

What more could we ask? What more could anyone receive from Life? To learn how to think constructively is to learn how to prove or demonstrate what is good. We can be renewed and transformed by the renewing of our mind. There is One Mind, God - Mind, and this is the mind of man at the level of his understanding. Divine Intelligence stands ready to pour into our consciousness every idea of good, and an infinite Law within this Intelligence acts upon our acceptance or belief, making it visible in our experience.

Source: Ernerst Holmes (Science of Mind Magazine March 1981)