“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.” (Psalms 103: 2, 3). “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceedingly great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the fortieth year of his reign.” (II Chronicles 16: 12, 13). “Cast away from you all transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” (Ezekiel 13: 31, 32). “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James 5: 15). Over two thousand years have passed since the healing ministry of Christ Jesus and his disciples brought forth concrete, material evidence of God's presence and power, available on Earth, and still with mankind. Throughout the ancient world, spiritual healing of diseases, injury, and even some raisings of the dead, occurred for about four hundred years, first by Jesus and his disciples, then by some of those who grasped and followed the Master's teachings. After those few hundred years, spiritual healing nearly vanished from the planet, as thought turned more to material remedies and the growing belief in physical law and science, as apposed to spiritual law and science. Thus, today our world is subjected to more diseases and discordant 'conditions' (and the search for their material remedies) than ancient people would have ever imagined. The spiritually-mental healing of diseases and bodily discords was a vital part of the early Christian movement. It was solid proof of God's all-power over man and creation. It was proof of God's eternal love and care for us, whether we deserved it humanly, or not. It was proof that good, alone, exists in the forever creation of God. This movement was really a shift in thought: a shift from humankind's material standpoint of reality, to the recognition of God's spiritual, invisible reality. The healing ministry of Christ Jesus was a renewing of the mind, or consciousness back to the spiritual truth of all being. It was this truth of spiritual existence, realized in the consciousness of any individual, which would wipe out the belief, and manifestation of disease, discord, and death, as even possibilities for God's immortal children. Learning to heal spiritually is the divinely natural way of remedying all the ills of the flesh. It's the lasting way, because it gets to the core of the discord. Spiritual healing doesn't treat the symptoms—it treats the cause. Then it wipes the cause out of consciousness, where its belief began, like the warmth of the sun melts snow. Spiritual healing is proof of Immanuel—God with us. It's proof of the ever-presence of the kingdom of God, right here where humanity had thought they'd lost it. While going about the countryside with demonstrations of spiritual healing, Christ Jesus taught that the kingdom of God was always present, and that this “...kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17: 21). It's within the divine, true consciousness of each and every one of us; thus, anyone can be healed spiritually. The shift in one's thought, from a material to a spiritual basis of reality, accepts God as omnipotent—the only power in the universe. But God is infinite Spirit—not a super-human being in material form. Here in this human experience, where everything and everyone seems to exist materially, the general populace doesn't comprehend this infinite power and Intelligence we know as God, because the Creator can't be perceived in a finite, physical form. We then don't see how God, the loving Creator, can be all-powerful, and how Its power can keep us safe and healthy, when material cause and effect, or material laws, also appear to have power over our physical lives. Physical and mental diseases, and injuries, are evils we constantly experience; yet, the good news is that once the illusory nature of these destructive conditions are understood, spiritual healing still brings a transformation to both our physical bodies and mentalities, as well as all the other harmonies of existence in our true home—the realm of Spirit. When the material sense of being seems to have a rigid hold on us, there's an important point to see concerning our acceptance of materiality-as-reality. That point is: The five physical senses are the means by which the whole illusion of material existence is perpetuated. These senses perpetually deceive us. We see matter, we feel the touch of physical objects, we smell material things, we hear the sounds of movement on the air, we taste the chemical make-up of the physical items we call food. All five of these material senses convince us of the reality of the material universe of form. They combine to convince us that our very being is filtered through the flesh. Yet, these physical senses don't perceive anything of the spiritual universe, underlying all form. They don't perceive either our spiritual essence, or our spiritual mind. These senses perceive only material forms (the effects or manifestations of thought). They have no cognizance of the spiritual dimension of God's creating—that eternal harmony of being we call heaven. These limited senses perceive through the material form only, so they search out and detect only material form. But without the consciousness of any individual, these senses as indicators can't operate to perceive anything at all. I discovered the importance of going beyond the physical senses, into our inner spiritual sense, during my earlier years on the spiritual healing path. Here's the incident which occurred that showed me a glimpse of what's going on concerning the formation of disease, or lack of health, in the material body form—and what a strong part these physical senses play in the formation of injury and disease within or upon the body form: My husband and I had just moved from Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now, while I'd grown up in Wisconsin, I'd forgotten how cold the North could be—especially toward evening. One pleasant, Fall day, a sudden, biting-cold wind seemed to come out of nowhere. We were away from home, outdoors without warm clothing, so I had to endure the cold that was streaming into my throat and ears. I was greatly relieved when, about an hour later, we returned home to the warmth. The next morning, the effects of our outing had taken its toll on me. My eyes were swollen, my throat sore, and my ears hurt. I was so miserable, I could hardly talk or get out of bed. Now, taking things at face value, it appeared that the cold wind had power to affect my body, and thus to affect me...my life force...my essence. This was the logical, physical assessment of things. But new experiences were beginning to show me a higher truth. I had experienced proof of the mental nature of disease and injuries before. At the time of this incident, I wasn't sure, exactly, how the mental effects were in play. But I knew they were. So, I prayed to understand just how this all works, between thought and the physical body. How does belief in material cause and effect, or material law, actually bring disease into material form? I already understood that believing ourselves to be physical creatures, we naturally expect an effect from anything that enters the fleshly body or causes us discomfort. A mental readiness, or predisposition to accept disease, was already in place. But here was a particular case for me to dissect—a precise claim that a cold wind had just been destructive to me. I wanted to see how, exactly, my state of mind (or what I believed) came into play to actually materialize a diseased condition of my physical body. I knew that, in past healings, I had shifted my sense of identity from a fleshly mortal to what is often termed our Christ identity—our spiritual identity. I knew, also, to remember and realize that lack of health, in all its forms, is the illusion of sickness in the flesh, and not a reality of anyone's true, spiritual being. I was fairly new on the healing path and was just beginning to understand that spiritual healing of the material body-form results from, or follows, a realization of spiritual being and the recognition of good alone as existent in God's creation, with its everlasting wholeness, health, and life. So, as before, I knew to refuse to accept two powers: good and evil. Good alone exists in God's spiritual kingdom or creation. So, I had to 'unknow' any claim of an evil power in my experience; thus, the cold wind was not evil and had no power over me or my health. Despite my correction of thought, I also realized that here I had a perfect opportunity to uncover and see, step by step, just how belief, rather than severe weather conditions, had created the miserable, physical condition I was experiencing from my encounter with the cold wind. I wanted to delve deeper into mental causation. So, believing that we're all still linked to God in consciousness, I prayed to this divine Intelligence within us all, to reveal, to me, the spiritual truth I needed to see in this particular case. I prayed to, “Let this mind be in you (me), that was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2: 5). I then waited for the unfoldment from within. Shortly, it came to me to remember standing in the cold wind. Ask myself: Why had I been uncomfortable? The answer was simple: I was uncomfortable because of my material sense of touch. Feeling the cold wind, through my physical senses, was easily the culprit that was leading me to believe I'd been injured by the cold. I'd felt the bitter wind entering and touching the inside of my throat, nostrils, and ears. I'd felt it hit my lungs. I believed that the cold was a severe shock to the physical body, because I'd felt the shock of it, for more than an hour. I had simply accepted the belief that the cold must be injuring me, as it touched the fleshly tissues inside my body. The mental process had been instant and automatic, due to the physical senses, and my thinking that the material body was me...my essence of being...my substance. So I clearly identified this feeling of myself as a fleshly or physical creature, and the sensation of touch, in this case, as the reason for my own acceptance of the diseased condition I was now experiencing. Believing myself to be physical, and then believing this physical self to have been hurt, internally, by the cold wind, led me logically to expect a change to the flesh—as a reaction to the harsh treatment of the wind. And (it came to me) I'd proved exactly what Christ Jesus had meant when he said, “As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.” (Matthew 8: 13). I'd believed I was fleshly mortal, and I'd been injured by the raw wind; my body form obeyed my erroneous belief of myself, held in consciousness, and brought forth the physical changes to mirror my thoughts. These physical changes were 'done unto me'. So, my own acceptance of myself as a fleshly mortal, with a life force seemingly trapped in a physical body and affected by anything that touched or entered this fleshly form, was the real culprit I was dealing with—not the cold. And the good news was, that I could do something about my acceptance of this common, universal belief; I could change my acceptance into rejection, and thus change the effects on the physical form I'd accepted as my body. So, I reminded myself that the fleshly body is not the truth of being. God didn't create it. The infinite Intelligence of the universe of spiritual perfection wouldn't make a finite, material, vulnerable, imperfect form. The physical body is a temporary and imperfect form, which our own consciousness corrects, perfects, and transforms—until it translates out of materiality altogether, back into spiritual reality, as Christ Jesus had done in his ascension. God upholds our true body and mind, even when we're dwelling in the illusion of materiality. The real “I” and “me” of my being was still safe, sound and whole in God's keeping, through spiritual law—spiritual cause and effect, which had not been tampered with by a material wind. Once I saw this, once I mentally felt the truth of it, a great burden was lifted from me. I relaxed into peace. The symptoms disappeared within less than a half hour. They left me right after I actually realized that the cold wind had never touched my spiritual essence (spiritual body) safe in God's keeping. I began to absorb the fact that the real, spiritual, me had never been injured within or without. That cold wind had never reached my true being. All the time that the wind was blowing, I'd been untouched, right where I was. Matter, in any form, can't touch Spirit, so it couldn't touch me. All creation has its source, and substance, in divine Spirit. I began to see how this applies to everything. Every element of our spiritual and only being remains untouched by anything in the material illusion of form. Cold, heat, cuts, bruises, viruses...you name it; no illusion of matter as substance ever touches our true being, or anyone's true being. Spirit, God, is immortal. Man (generic term, meaning man and woman) is the off-spring of divine Spirit. Spirit doesn't create material, finite form—it creates spiritual, infinite form. Thus, the entire material sense of creation is an illusion perpetuated by the five, physical senses. We are deceived at every turn, bolstered by the belief of so-called laws of cause and effect in matter. Yet, Spirit is the only Lawmaker. Creation still belongs to the Creator. For those who still believe that physical laws of good and evil exist and can't be tampered with, here's a point to consider: Spiritually mental healing would never work if real laws of material cause and effect—laws of disease and injury—actually exist. How could thought have power to break a real law of the universe? Belief would have no power to help or heal, if so-called physical laws have any real jurisdiction over man. If disease is a law, then God created it, and thought would have no power at all against it. Yet, Christ Jesus spent his few years on this planet, by both teaching and healing that disease, injury, and even death of the material body, disappears when turning to God's laws of creation. Jesus was showing that God knew only health and eternal life for us. Neither death, destruction, nor any other harm is sanctioned by God, or the divine laws of the universe of God, Spirit's, creating. Even many physical scientists today will admit that it's our consciousness which actually sees, feels, hears, smells and touches. Someone can be hypnotized and made to believe he's eating an apple, when he's actually eating an onion. Under this mere trick of hypnosis, the consciousness of the individual determines what the apple should taste like; the apple doesn't determine anything...it was a thing 'named' by Adam in the dream of material existence. Universal belief has said an apple tastes sweet, and so we interpret it as sweet. We aren't, individually, creating these beliefs; but our acceptance of worldy and universal material beliefs, is the same as being hypnotized: our acceptance of material beliefs is our consciousness yielding to the beliefs of others. Today, the world is filled with people who've been healed, one time or another, by replacing their faith in the diseased condition, with faith in God's spiritual laws and authority over their condition. Those on the spiritually healing path are proving, in individual experiences, that the kingdom of God is the real kingdom...an invisible kingdom, not of this world (material plane of thought). And where, exactly, is this invisible kingdom of God, with all its good, health, life and laws of perfection? “....behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17: 21). (Within your consciousness and spiritually conscious awareness.) As I like to remind readers: none of these spiritual assertions are new from me or to the world. Today, these spiritual principles are taught in religions like Christian Science (founded by Mary Baker Eddy) and the Infinite Way (founded by Joel S. Goldsmith). A few oriental religions also allude to consciousness as the key to the spiritual enlightenment which overcomes the evils of the world. I'm sure there are other prophets, throughout time, who've also grasped the spiritual nature of all reality—the truth has always been here, throughout human history, for those who search for it. This whole material illusion must, one day, bow down to the true science of spiritual reality. Always remember that God is keeping us perfect, whole and eternal, by keeping us spiritual—even when we're believing that we're physical and diseased. Whether we still live in the flesh or die out of it, our true selfhood, safe in God, has never been touched by the human condition of materiality. When we realize just this one, single fact, the awful illusion of disease, injury, and death begin to lose their fearful grip upon us. This lessening of fear is a sign that consciousness is cleansing itself. Then the days of spiritual power begin to work in our lives.
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