“Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you,” (2nd Chronicles 20:17 to 3rd comma, King James Bible). “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21).
People in this world have one thing in common, which is clear to anyone who has lived here very long: we each think we are Right, most of the time. We tend to think that the individual human intelligence we personally possess has the ability to know what is right, when all others are wrong; and we spend a lot of time trying to make our personal righteousness known to others. The result of trusting our limited, human perception of things (instead of trusting the divine Intelligence we are connected to at the spiritual level of our being) leads to endless battles of wills, all over the planet. We fight about everything. Just review the political climate in the world today. People speak out, with great self-righteousness, on every topic we’ll ever want to hear about. And we are committed to our battles with each other. We fortify ourselves with phrases like, ‘Evil prospers when good people do nothing’ and ‘I have the courage of my convictions, so I’m not giving in on this! I have to stand for what’s right!’ The trouble is: we have to know whose righteousness we’re standing up for—our own, or God’s. I speak from experience. When I was younger, I did a lot of battling for what I believed to be right. When exerting my human will on something, very seldom did I think I was wrong; rather, I felt myself to be a balanced individual who really examined myself to be sure I was in the right. I didn’t like feuding with others, so I picked my battles of righteousness—usually I’d get into a battle of wills if I felt that I, or someone else I knew, was being victimized in some way. Yet, it took years for maturity to grow before I realized that I had probably never been totally Right (with a capital R) about anything. Over the years, I realized that it is the human ego that wants to be the all-knowing one. Being right makes us feel important in a world so filled with other people. We appear special when we are always right about things, or if through the force of our will, we win some battle. It seems to be a way of feeling our own self-worth. But accepting the concept of billions of intelligences existing in harmony is ridiculous. For true intelligence to exist, it must be universal and in unity and agreement with all. We must agree with it—not have differing views, and wills, about it. There must be one, true Source of such an Intelligence, and we all must share it, at some level of our being (but certainly not the human, material level). In his letter to the Philippians, Paul the Apostle wrote: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Philippians 2:5). Here is a hint that we must turn away from the limited view of “our own” human intelligence and beliefs of what is absolutely right, to find that higher realm of Spirit—where the only true Intelligence and Righteousness resides. When we turn to the divine, infinite Intelligence, we also find, along with it, the only Will and Purpose of all things in creation. We find God’s Truth; and within it is the only Righteousness that really exists on any level of thought. It’s very important to realize that God’s Truth is not far from any of us. When Jesus said, “…the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) Jesus was telling us that the kingdom of God, with all Its truth, knowledge and righteousness, resides in our true Mind and consciousness—our spiritual consciousness, alive and well at the center of our very being. To connect and mentally ‘hear’ this divine, spiritual consciousness within, we must silence our own human sense of what is right and good, stop human will, no matter how Right we believe ourselves to be, and wait for the divine Intelligence to enter our thoughts to direct our actions. In this way, once we silence human will, God’s ‘battle’ corrects everyone concerned in the matter, leaving an outcome that solves all disputes and blesses all concerned. Here’s an example of how this works: Some time ago, I belonged to a public club where I swam for many years. It was, to me, my right place. Suddenly, a few aggressive swimmers began to literally attack those of us swimming there. They would deliberately crash into us in the water. About nine regular swimmers left, until only I was left; but I decided I wasn’t going to be driven out by hooligans. So, for weeks I wrote letters and complained to the establishment; but, as they say, the fix was in. Without going into details, I continued to do battle with those in charge, knowing that one of the officials at the facility was behind much of the discord and refusal to protect anyone. I became weary of the battle, so I prayed about it for the hundredth time, believing things should be corrected. Suddenly, while claiming my Christ-Consciousness within (which is our link with God) I was surprised to ‘hear’ this thought in my mind, loud and clear: “This is not a battle you want to win. Let go of your sense of Right and leave this place. You don’t have to fight in this battle.” As I said, I was surprised. I was sure God would deliver me and fix the problems at the facility. Instead, I was told to walk away, with no other deep pool in the city that I could use. (I’m not a lap swimmer; my routine is in very deep water, so pools are hard to find.) Yet, despite my reservations, I knew this was coming from my spiritual consciousness within; so I went to the club immediately and withdrew my membership in obedience to what had come to my thought. By the time I arrived home, another thought came to me to call a place that, to my knowledge, did not have a deep pool. Still, I made the call. It turned out to have a specific, deep pool for me to use; but more surprisingly, I would be the only one using it at the times I needed it. I’ve been there for almost five years now, and I still have it all to myself. This incident showed me why we are wise to trust these spiritual insights and thoughts from the kingdom of God within us. We are wise because (and I’ve written this in other articles) God can see around corners, and we can’t. The all-knowing, all-seeing Intelligence of Spirit, God, is always aware of all identities, places, and things in creation. With my own, human sense of things, I would have never found that new pool. I don’t know what has happened with the place I left. I stopped trying to fix it myself and left it to God. The divine Mind told me to. The divine Intelligence and Wisdom within was probably speaking to me while I was battling, but I didn’t hear it. I wasn’t listening. So, I had struggled with this self-initiated battle and wasted so much time in doing so, while a much better place awaited me. We are all brought up to take care of ourselves and others in need. But the ease with which we enter into battles of wills with other people is due to a false sense of separation from God. This false, material sense of God’s absence from our lives causes us to endlessly try to protect ourselves from all the evils ‘out there’ in our seemingly, materially encased environment. We believe we are alone in our battles, when the Infinite One is always with us, to guide us and guard us from harm, turning us down paths that have no battling. Here’s something to ponder, whenever a battle seems eminent or constant: God’s spiritual universe is big enough for each of us to have our own pool (so to speak). Battles aren’t necessary in the kingdom of God, where each of us resides, even though we aren’t perceiving it humanly. The human scene and appearance of things will change when we remember who we really are (God’s spiritual children) and where we really are (the Kingdom of Heaven). The invisible Kingdom of God is called Heaven because it exists in an ever-lasting state of universal harmony. Only good exists in this Kingdom of Spirit, because any lack of good would become a seed of destruction to the harmony. So there is no lack of any good in God’s real creation, which is hidden from physical sight and senses, but known to the spiritual sense that is present in the universal Christ Consciousness within us all. The infinite Intelligence of the Creator is sufficient to supply all the good that is needed to insure the continuation of harmony for all. This means that there is never any need for battling among its inhabitants. God doesn’t actually do ‘battle’ for anyone. God eliminates our need for battling, by bringing our thoughts in line with the divine Will, where all needs are met for everyone. In actual spiritual fact, we live in the harmonious Kingdom of God right now, but our perception of it is hidden by the material sense of things. So, reacting to our assessment of the material scene as reality, we believe that we have been thrown out of Heaven and separated from both God and our heavenly home. Now and then, angelic thoughts come to us that lift us out of this material mind-set. When this occurs, and we mentally ‘see’ the spiritual truth of things, the harmony that was absent is restored to our human experience. Then we say a ‘miracle’ has taken place. But so-called miracles are merely the natural truth of things being manifested in the physical world of form, after spiritual realization has taken place in someone’s consciousness. Spiritual truth (or truth of spiritual being) is always present within us; but just as clouds in the sky can blot out the sunlight, so can material thinking and believing blot out our remembrance of God’s omnipotence (only power) omnipresence (only presence) and omniscience (only truth). What we call miracles take place after our spiritual realization and perception of God’s invisible kingdom replaces our beliefs in other powers and the universal, erroneous world-belief in God’s absence. For, as the Bible states, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” (Acts 17: 27-29). Our daily lives become more harmonious as we give up human will and take our battles in life back to our Source—our loving Creator and care-taker—and leave them there. Then the only Intelligence that really exists takes over, guiding us back to the place where no battles can be.
|
