“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139: 7-10, King James Bible Version). “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3). “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isaiah 41:10).
Around the world today, visions of an economic collapse and the resulting hard times loom large on our collective human consciousness. Already, in the US and other industrial nations, many individuals are experiencing loss of current jobs and income. In some third world countries, the slowing flow of foreign food supplies with its ensuing famine has become a great possibility, if not already a fact. The midnight hour of fear, despair and hopelessness begins to afflict us as we try to navigate our way out of approaching mental and physical depressions. Where is our joy and hope in these dark times? Joy and hope, along with trust in our deliverance from such evils, are directly related to how we assess the material situation on earth. If our conceptions of reality are based only on what’s happening in the material scene at any moment in time, we probably aren’t considering any possibility of deliverance from the invisible realm of Spirit, God. When accepting appearances from a strictly physical point of view, we’re justified in believing things are going from bad to worse. This belief, or conviction, that the material sense of things is ‘all there is’ carries with it almost all of the fear, despair, and depression we then feel. Yet, the material scene of both good and evil consequences is nothing more than billions of people, each expressing his and her own personal beliefs in some kind of action. Some individuals are selfishly, fraudulently motivated, and thus act out their greed and criminal activities against others. Other individuals are unselfishly motivated and become a blessing to others, as well as themselves. Their actions in the human scene bring forth the good we experience. But both the good and evil material appearances are a distorted picture of reality; for in divine Truth, only good is present in God’s true creation, which is spiritual, not material. Whatever is wrong in an individual’s life, in a country, or on the whole planet, can be changed through the mental recognition of the divine Intelligence that is ever-present and within our deeper, spiritual consciousness—when we turn to it for deliverance from the evils which the carnal mentality has produced in our environment. In the Bible, God has this to say through the voice of Ezekiel the Prophet: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” (Ezekiel 21: 27). This assures us that, whatever evil we encounter in the human scene, God is not the producer of it. Instead, when turned to, God is the Deliverer from whatever evils boast control or dominion over God’s own, spiritual children, who are loved and cared for through eternity. The fact that evil conditions, dis-eases, imbalances in our provisions, wars, and even political shenanigans that seem to curse us from those we place in high positions…all the things that continue to afflict humanity throughout time…come from man—not God. And God, the Deliverer, overturns our human, man-made conditions, whenever we turn back to the divine Intelligence within, realize that power belongs only to God, Spirit, and trust this knowledge as we mentally stand in it until the deliverance comes into our human, material experience. God is our Creator, Mother, Father, Friend and ever-lasting Caretaker. We cannot be sick, poor, without our right place, purpose, and provision from our true SOURCE, which is Spirit. The human, material appearances of things have nothing to do with what God is invisibly doing at all times—keeping all creation spiritual, whole and alive throughout eternity. Yet, we must keep this realization close to us at all times here, during both good and bad times. Then the ‘bad’ doesn’t stay long, and our ‘good’ is more stable. Christ Jesus kept pointing the way to God as our Source and Origin. He said, “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9). Jesus also said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). Trusting material conditions, rather than God’s invisible presence and power, is not worshipping “in spirit and in truth.” So, how does this relate to global events today? The invisible realm of Spirit is always present for us to access individually, or collectively. It is a mental place we can find within ourselves—that is, within our innate, always-present spiritual consciousness, called the Christ Consciousness. It is our true mind, when it is cleared of all materialistic thinking and believing. It is our higher Self, when we are fully awake to spiritual reality, and all the divine Harmony that still exists at hand. But on this human level of thought, where spiritual and physical beliefs seem to share space in our thinking, our state of mind is murky. The carnal mentality, (that part of us which still believes ourselves to be material, rather than spiritual beings) pollutes our thinking, shutting out our spiritual remembrance of the true Kingdom, with all Its safety, abundance, health, purpose, peace, and everlasting life. Our deliverance can be swift when we realize that the only circumstances we can really have are our divine circumstances perpetually flowing to each of us from God. Spiritual being is our true reality, and we can always turn to God in prayer or mental contact to find our link with the invisible, infinite Intelligence of the spiritual and only universe that exists—the Kingdom of God. Then we hear the thoughts, ideas and direction we need to know to be delivered from whatever the carnal mind has done in the world that is causing us grief. We’re in the kingdom of God (our heavenly home of peace and harmony for all) right now, wherever we go; but because of all the misery we’ve collectively added to the human experience (that has taken form in our shared environment) we just don’t recognize the place! Then we blame the Almighty for all the pollutions of greed, crime, poverty, sickness and sin in the world. Why would God create the destructions that would wipe out the very existence of heavenly harmony and immortality? Predictions of chaos and economic breakdowns in the world hold less fear for those who are already living with the knowledge of God’s ever-present reality and our safety within it. A little faith goes a long way. Faith is important because holding to faith in this knowledge of God’s perpetual, loving care for each and every one of us opens our mental doors and windows, permitting the light of divine Love’s care to pour into the forefront of our consciousness, blotting out our negative assessment of things. When this occurs, a brighter mental picture becomes more apparent to us. We actually hear, from within, the very steps and ways to take, which will result in our deliverance from all the threats, lacks, and limitations in our lives. Sometimes, our deliverance needs no action on our part to correct a situation. When this is so, we merely have to trust in God’s deliverance only (knowing that divine Love will let us know if we must take some action) for events to turn back to normalcy and good. God’s deliverance has made its appearance in the human experience, throughout time, whenever faith in God’s presence and omnipotent power has been recognized by individuals. The Bible is full of such incidents. Children around the world have loved the story of David and Goliath, where just a boy with a sling-shot toppled the evil giant that was threatening so many people. But notice what David said before confronting the frightening monster before him. David told those watching him, (who thought it would be impossible for a mere boy to stop Goliath): “…The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17: 37). Then, submitting his own will and life to God’s omnipotence over this large appearance of evil, David took the shot. Sometimes, what seems like disaster turns out to be an unexpected blessing in disguise. Letting go of our own will and plans in the matter is the first step in reaping the rewards of God’s wisdom, instead of our own, faulty human-sense of wisdom. Here’s an illustration of how our Christ Consciousness asserts itself and obeys the divine will, while challenging and healing the material paths and beliefs that have turned against us: In my late thirties, with both children in school, I went back into the work force in the field of real estate. I quickly applied my knowledge of God’s ever-present abundance and was quite successful in a commercial land sale to a local hospital. I was flying quite high, feeling that my supply needs were over forever and that, with God’s help, I could produce income whenever I wanted. For about four years, I settled into a path where I was using what I knew of spiritual life and abundance to produce more income in my daily life. In my fourth year, disaster struck. Every commercial real estate endeavor I was involved in began to slip away. After about seven months, my income from commissions was zero. This became quite bizarre; other agents watched it happen and said I was under a curse. Desperately, I turned to God and asked, “Why is this happening? What’s going on here?” I knew the answer was within the universal Christ Consciousness that we all share; so I waited to hear the answer from within. What came to my thought was quite assertive: “Do you really think this is your highest and best use? Is your mission to make money? Shall we just forget the spiritual healings in your life? Stop playing and come home.” I fought this mental message for several more months, until I could no longer afford to be in real estate. One day, at a sales meeting, I heard a gentle voice within say, “It is time, now, to go.” Without resistance, I walked into the broker’s office and resigned. Within days, I was led to a full-time position teaching English and French at a junior high school. My first year’s teacher salary didn’t even come close to my first commission in real estate! Yet, I knew I was my right place. (I’ve described this occurrence as feeling like I’d been on a train moving in one direction, having a wonderful time, when a great hand lifted the train and put it on another track, going in an entirely different direction.) Since that time, I’ve never really made much money again. The next year, I began writing Christian Science articles on healing and was led to begin a master’s degree program in writing. When the master’s degree program was over, I taught part-time at a local college. With that, my life shifted to only part-time work, as my income dwindled more and more. However, by then I was spending three-quarters of my time in healing work, which continued for another five years. From this whole experience, I began to comprehend something important: While we may have individual goals that we pour our heart into, these personal goals have nothing to do with God’s plan for us. I believe that the divine Intelligence wishes us to awaken to spiritual reality as quickly as possible; and the divine plan will move us down the path of Its own choosing, knowing where the spiritual awakening will take place. For me, piling up money from real estate deals was not that place. So that particular door, however fair and pleasant, closed to me. I was led, instead to find my own path in God’s service. Now, many years later, our family has suffered no financial loss because of it; as my husband’s income (through a lot of prayerful times) has always been quite adequate. Recently, when a friend was bemoaning how she’d never been able to prove God’s abundance and harmony in her life, because nothing she ever planned turned out right, I began to smile. I recognized her dilemma. She was surprised to hear me say that maybe harmony and material abundance wasn’t what she needed most. (Like my earlier self, she equated harmony with having her goals met and her life settling into a peaceful, comfortable material place, like curling up in an old easy chair.) She asked, “Well, doesn’t God want me to be peaceful and comfortable?" I thought only a second before expressing my theory that God’s primary goal might be for us to awaken spiritually, and that I wasn’t sure physical comfort always brings that about. Looking back at my own experience, I told her, I could see that most of my spiritual progress had come from going through a very uncomfortable time, and finally yielding to God’s plan for me. When suffering through the many trials, tribulations, and just plain hard times in this human experience, we might be wise to follow this advice from Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? … for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6: 31-33).
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