"Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath." (John 5: 2-9, New King James Bible). Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." (John 5: 14). "What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge'? "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine;" (Ezekiel 18: 2-4). "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
People often wonder why, in healing 'all the ills that flesh is heir to' it's wise to give one's faith to either the material method, or the spiritual method. Trying to split one's loyalty between the two isn't advised. The reason for this is that using both methods together is like trying to go east and west at the same time. They are diverse methods and can work against each other and interfere with each other. Material methods treat the manifestation of diseases and discords as a real part of the individual and try to find a material remedy. The spiritual approach is to utterly deny the reality of the diseases, discords, and the presence of any evil power in God's creation, thus removing their underlying mental origins. Once consciousness is corrected, the healing is assured because consciousness controls the material form. Physical healing (with material substances) is based upon the underlying belief that we are physical, fleshly creatures who are governed by material law (cause and effect in matter). Neither God, nor spiritual law, is given much credence in physically-based healing methods. Instead, the assumption is that disease, injury, and aging manifestations are physical realities that we cannot rise above. So, we resign ourselves to these evils, feeling abandoned by God who has allowed us to be afflicted, leaving us to find a cure "out there" in the material environment, outside of ourselves. Spiritual healing goes in an entirely different direction. It starts from the basis that we are spiritual beings, governed only by God's spiritual laws of ever-lasting wholeness and health, and there is nothing to afflict our spiritual being. Rather than having a physical body, our true body, soul and mind is all one thing; and that one thing is spiritual in substance, although invisible to the physical senses. Under God's intensive care, we have no disease to rid ourselves of, or combat. Spiritual law, alone, is present and active to reverse any physical appearance and symptoms produced by world beliefs in material cause and effect, or any other beliefs in powers opposed to God. Jesus was the master healer and taught his spiritually-mental healing methods to his disciples—who then found the way, and reason, why spiritual healing works. It isn't magic. It's a perception of our spiritual reality hidden underneath the seeming-reality of material existence. This false sense of physical existence is perceived only by the five physical senses. But our innate, sense of all things spiritual, which resides in our deeper consciousness (our Christ Consciousness within) perceives that which is invisible to limited, physical sight. Realization of our spiritual truth of being begins to adjust consciousness to discard all the worldly beliefs in material existence, physical law, and resignation to diseases and sin. With this realization of spiritual being, Jesus healed even the belief in physical death for some individuals. By reawakening the consciousness of those who believed they had died (ceased to exist), their reawakened, true selves arose. Spiritual healing is the exercise of a higher level of thought over that lower level of thought that cannot perceive spiritual reality. It's like the old saying, "In the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." Christ Jesus was that one-eyed man, so to speak. What his spiritually enlightened consciousness knew trumped any beliefs of power and law that humanity believed up to that point in time. Knowing that nothing and no one, nor any dimension of existence could touch, alter, or harm God's own children, Jesus and his disciples after him brought spiritual healing to the earthly, human experience for all time. Any one can learn it. So, let's dissect a case of spiritual healing to see how (and why) it actually works for anyone who faithfully applies it, by not allowing a belief in any power opposed to God to remain in consciousness: In the early 90s, while I was in the public practice of spiritual healing, I received a phone call from a friend. As I recall the circumstances, she was on her way to Colorado for her son's birthday or wedding (I can't remember which). Her problem was that, about a day earlier, she had been out in the woods and contacted poison ivy. (She was an outdoor person and knew poison ivy well.) A rash was moving up her arm, and she needed to get on a plane in a few hours. The rash was quite aggressive, so she feared she would have to cancel her trip. She asked if I could do some praying for her, which I agreed to do. I told her that I would 'know the truth' for her. I was quite confident in telling her not to worry…she would be on that plane. Within about two hours, the rash had reversed itself and was quickly disappearing. She had a great trip, and the so-called effects from contact with poison ivy had all disappeared from her body and experience by the time she arrived in Colorado. So, how could I have been so confident? What 'truth' had I known that would 'make her free' from those effects from a seeming material law about poison ivy? Well, it certainly wasn't a material truth. The material so-called 'truth' bore physical witness to an effect from contact with the ivy. No, the truth we are to know (in every instance of discord in our lives) is that truth of our spiritual identity, rather than a physical identity. The truth that I prayed, meditated and concentrated upon was the truth of her Christ Self—her true, spiritual selfhood, which was the image and likeness of God, forever alive, well and whole in Spirit, not the flesh. I also realized and confirmed clearly in my own thoughts that, since she was spiritual in substance, then even if ivy was a material thing, it had not touched her spiritual essence, or body. She was Spirit-Untouched. Yet, going further, I knew that 'ivy' was not a material-form thing; it was as spiritual as the rest of God's invisible kingdom, and everything in God's creation is good. God's ivy is not poison; God's ivy is beautiful and loving to the touch. Everything in God's ever-lasting kingdom (heavenly harmony) is benign. Nothing ever really touches us but love. And the real creation of Spirit, exists right where a material universe seems to be a reality, but is not. Both my friend and the ivy were safe and sound in God's ever-lasting love. It wasn't a long meditation session. When I felt peaceful, I knew that the healing was complete, and she would experience the reversal of the reaction to the material-ivy belief in poison, which she did. This is how simple it can be. Jesus came to show us how simple it can be to remove the trials and tribulations of this human experience, where we seem to be so separated from God's love. I believe that Jesus was our spiritual brother. He came to show us the truth about ourselves—our spiritual Selves. He came to uncover the Christ identity (spiritual identity) of each of us; and on the subject of discord, diseases, and even death, Jesus proclaimed, "…you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:32). This truth we are to know and mentally remember and cling to is the realization of who we really are (God's spiritual children) and where we really live (in the spiritual creation of God). Material existence is a state of false identity and self-deception. We were never of the lineage of Adam and Eve. Adam fell asleep when dreaming of his own creation, which took the infinite creation of God and re-created it on a finite level of thought. We collectively continue in that dream to this day. Yet, material existence is an illusion of being. We have been, and always will be, God's own children, whose substance is spiritual. Our true inheritance is a spiritual one; it is never a physical one. Our true identity is our Christ identity. We are the spiritual children of God, and we continue to be the spiritual children of God, whatever else we erroneously believe ourselves to be. Whatever level or dimension of awareness we dwell within, we are still the same, spiritual children of God. We must perceive the fact that our only circumstances are our spiritual circumstances. In truth, we have no material conditions. But TAKE NOTE: To bring the truth of spiritual wholeness into the physical scene, at least one person still on this material level of thought must know the spiritual truth of being. Someone must do the knowing. We all contribute to the collective consciousness in this material state, so one person (or many) must know and stand in the truth, with complete faith in God's loving control over all, in order for the spiritual truth to be made flesh (heal the erroneous states of disease, discords, and injury as Jesus taught). And whoever is knowing the spiritual truth that heals is always proving God's control over all, not bringing forth into the human scene any power or control of their own—because no individual has control over God's creation. Yet, all creation owns God's power. When Jesus told one who was healed that he should "…sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you" (See 2nd quotation at top of article) he was showing the connection between wrong thinking and the ills of the flesh we suffer. Knowing the truth of spiritual, rather than physical being, is a mental activity. Meditating upon this truth is a prayer of the highest order. It recognizes God, divine Spirit, as the only Intelligence, Power, and Authority in all creation, over all and within us all. It honors God and acts out of faith. In the Ten Commandments that were given to erring humanity through Moses' communion with God, we find the healing and harmony which results from obeying these directives. Disobedience of the very first commandment addresses the sin which results in so many of our afflictions: "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3). This means, power and law belong to God alone; there are no other powers, so don't believe in them. Suffering will naturally result from forgetting this directive, for we manifest physically whatever we believe about ourselves and reality. God never created any of our diseases or sins. We suffer from our own beliefs about reality, until we correct those beliefs with spiritual truth. Then these evil imaginings of the flesh disappear in what is called spiritual healing; but in fact, it is really spiritual seeing that we engage in when we know the spiritual truth—for nothing in God's spiritual creation has ever needed healing of the body, soul, or mind. The beliefs that touch the material form never reach true being, safe in Spirit. These truth-filled principles bring the invisible Kingdom of God (Heaven) into the visible, material scene where we seem to dwell, by adjusting and making whole whatever needs fixing in this material dimension (level of thought). We need to remind ourselves daily of these truths, as we learn to go to our Christ Consciousness within to find the spiritual windows of truth. This higher Selfhood within never sleeps nor falls under the spell of earthly beliefs. By peering through the spiritual windows within our deeper, spiritual consciousness, we become seers rather than healers—for in God's heavenly harmony, there is never anything to heal in our everlasting life, health, and love.
|
