"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10; New King James Bible).' "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;" (Isaiah 49: 15,16; King James Bible Version). "But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.": (Isaiah 43:1; New King James Bible)..
Well, here it is again: the beautiful, Fall month of October, with all its changing colors and crisp, clear air to enjoy. But, the collective, worldly consciousness is full of fear this year. Negative thoughts of a possible global depression; threats and attacks of terrorism; hostile weather conditions; unemployment; even the polarized political climate, all loom large in consciousness, eclipsing happier thoughts and a sense of well-being for individuals around the world. October will still end with the festivities of Halloween, of course, as adults decorate for the season and children dress up in their costumes and go house to house collecting all the goodies they can. But many people dislike Halloween, due to its ancient beliefs of evil; even though today's Halloween has transformed these beliefs from evil spirits, (whom the ancients believed went wandering about on this particular night) into a party time, shared by both young and old. Because of all the fears we develop about material laws and powers over us, we have learned to use a few psychological ways to cope with the many fears that trouble our minds. We like to scare ourselves with unreal trials, just a bit, making us face the fears in our own minds. For example, visiting 'haunted' fun-houses and watching horror movies are ways to be scared by images, while deep-down knowing that we are still safe from any threat. One of the reasons I think children, (beyond toddlers) like to go out on Halloween night, is to face those 'monsters' that they know are make-believe, giving them a sense of dominion over the 'real' thing, should it come along. This doesn't always work for the very young, who haven't made up their minds what is true and not true in their lives. When our two children were young, either my husband or I would take them trick-or-treating so they could show off their costumes and collect their goodies (which was mostly candy, at that time). Then, when we arrived back home, we would look through their treasure trove of sweets and monitor their sugar intake to a reasonable level, putting the rest of the sweets away. This made their haul last for several weeks, so Halloween was one of their best-fun times of the year.. While out with our kids, one Halloween night, a man, covered with a white sheet, and yelling, "Boo!" came rushing around the corner of his house toward a group of little ones on the way to the door for their treats. A few of the children shrieked and hid behind their parents—but one brave, little boy stepped forward and, in a strong voice, said to the man, "Go away, ghost!" To everyone's surprise, the ghostly one stopped and was silent for a moment, and then he turned to run back the way he came, and shouted, "Oh, don't hurt me…don't hurt me!" This short drama seemed to breathe strength into the hearts of the little ones, watching it all; and several came forward, (from behind their parents) laughing at the scary apparition as he ran away. One of their own had chased away their fear, by standing up to the seemingly bad thing they had feared. They clapped their hands, in thanks, to the brave one, as did their parents. I've thought of this incident, now and then, and have come to the conclusion that courage over our worldly fears can be 'caught' as easily as the fear. Now, I'm not advocating that we should embrace scaring our children (or grandchildren) in order to make them better handle fearful times in their lives. But I've realized that so many fears are as irrational as that make-believe ghost was on that Halloween night. The truth was, there really was no ghost. It was an illusion, but only to the smaller children who had not known that the make-believe ghost was not real, just a pretend ghost, so, despite appearances, it was nothing to fear. Yes, I know what the reader is thinking: that there are real evils in the world to fear, and they don't just go away by facing up to them. In fact, when dealing with the evils of sickness, poverty, and all the current violence of our planet, we often feel just plain inadequate (of any power of our own) to defeat such things. So, disease, poverty, violence and other destructive elements of this human experience, without a good reason to feel any dominion over them seem logical to fear. Fear is a natural response to such a view of reality. With no other help at hand but our own intelligence and wits in the face of material evils and the so-called 'laws' of physics, fear can seem to be the smartest and healthiest response. Yet, from a spiritual viewpoint, there IS a way to defeat these worldly fears. This way is to rely, not on our own limited, human sense of intelligence and power, but rather to stop the fear response (as soon as we can) by relying upon the ever-presence of the divine Spirit, God, who is with us, wherever we go, and whenever we are believing that some material condition or law is over-powering us. The trouble is that most of us do not realize this, in the same way that the frightened young children didn't realize that the 'evil' ghost before them was possible to defeat. What seems so evil to individuals, (in the false, material sense of things) is of no problem to God; for, in Spirit's ever-presence and sovereign power and authority over his own spiritual children, God can handle what we cannot. Therefore, we can rely upon the Creator to maintain the health and harmony of Its own creation. When silencing fear, we are clearing our consciousness to make way for the delivering peace of God. Then God's action can come into the seeming physical scene. The material scene doesn't exist in spiritual reality. God's creation is spiritual in substance, but our sense of this kingdom has been clouded by the human experience and the outer world of form. When the Bible presents God as saying, "Fear not, for I am with you;" (see first quotation at top of article) it is saying that we are still with God (despite appearances) and all God's spiritual action, all the divine cause and effect, are invisibly present. Fear is our only enemy. It gets in the way of any conscious knowing of spiritual Truth. When fear is cast out of consciousness, the way is clear for divine Truth to come forward. No doubt, that brave little boy had conquered the sense of fear, within himself, before stepping forward to chase away the ghostly threat—otherwise he would have hidden behind his parents, too; and the ghost might have won the day, so to speak. But it didn't. However aggressively it appeared, the ghost had no real power to frighten anyone who was determined not to be frightened by it. So, know the enemy. Fear is a response to our own belief about our situation, whether we have dominion over the threat before us, or not. With faith in God's invisible presence and spiritual laws of life, health, abundance and harmony, we DO have dominion over every worldly belief of any power that claims dominion over God's creation. The universe of material, finite form is not the greater reality of being; thus, a spiritual sense of reality alters our handling of fear, allowing us to chase it away, out of thought, whenever we allow our faith to take its place and alter our deeper perception of things We must remember, too, that faith and fear cannot be dominant in consciousness at the same time. Either we are afraid, due to all the material appearance of things before us, or we are having faith in the invisible kingdom of God, where we are safe and sound forever. We must not believe what we see with our physical eyes; we must believe in the unseen realm of Spirit. God delivers us from the materialization of evil (produced from our false, material sense of evil); but God's real creation has no evil (lack of God-ordained good) in it. Thus, when holding to faith in the goodness and all-power of God, the 'evils' of this human experience are extinguished, often in ways we never imagined. Faith is trust in the divine Intelligence, Wisdom, Love and Harmonious Purpose to deliver us from all the 'evils' of this place. When we are trusting, God to bring forth our deliverance from any bad situation, without fear or doubt, we are driving fear out of our consciousness and letting go of our own sense of how our deliverance should come about. But, one might ask, is there a way to rid ourselves of fear, when it won't go away…even when we're trying to have faith? Actually, yes there is. It is to understand the importance of the Christ Consciousness within our greater self. Right where a limited, material consciousness seems to be, right there is our true mind, filled with all spiritual truth. This truth lies dormant within our deeper self, but it is there, just the same, to be called forth when we need to know something of spiritual reality. Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." So, realize that there is YOU that is not touched by anything in this world. This YOU is your awakened, spiritual identity, forever safe in God's loving care. But more than that, this YOU is your true, infinite mind or consciousness. It is with you always. It is Immanuel (God with us). When each of us fully awakens spiritually, we will know all of this. But for now, our limited, material senses of perception hide from us our true home, in God's ever-present spiritual reality. So, to say again, this Christ Consciousness (your higher Self that is the real image and likeness of God) is your true mind that knows no fear, because it knows that, in God's spiritually, perfect kingdom (that is always invisibly present) there is never anything TO fear. It is the false, material sense of ourselves that is frightened of this physical level of thought and manifestation of things, and identities. When we realize our Christ Consciousness within us is really never afraid, we can command fear to leave us because it is not true of our real selves. Really accepting and knowing the spiritual truth of God's invisible presence, and loving control over all, conquers fear. This bears out the words of Jesus, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32, King James Bible Version). So, we must continue to realize that evil does not exist in God's loving kingdom, still present within us…that is, still present to be consciously aware of. This is the truth that frees us of the woes of the flesh (false sense of ourselves). It is the spiritual identity of each of us—the Christ identity, which is forever at peace. Peace means freedom from all fear. When we spiritually and fully awaken to our true being, we will be free of all fear, without effort. But for now, that peace within us is dormant awaiting our calling it forth. It is the spirit of God, saying, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20). Thus, by claiming the presence of our Christ Consciousness, we can say NO to fear, and it will leave us. We have dominion over our thoughts. I speak from experience. I suffered (for ten long years) from the belief of agoraphobia. If I left the house, I had panic attacks. I had to sit near a door in any classroom, church, or meeting, for an escape route. I had panic attacks at stop lights when driving. Yet, I was healed in church, one Sunday, by the realization that, right where a physical mind, with hidden fears seemed to be, right there was my real mind—the Christ Consciousness, filled with all spiritual Truth. It was the infinite consciousness that knew that I had no material mind to heal. I suddenly realized that I had never really had a sick mind, or any fear in my true consciousness. In the Christ Consciousness, there was no 'hidden fear' to uncover or be healed from. Only a false sense of myself could ever fear evil, of any worldly belief that tried to attach itself to me. I was, and always had been, a daughter of God, and no one else. On my way home, I waited for the attack to occur—but it never came. I've never had another panic attack. That was more than 30 years ago. By claiming my true Daughtership to God, I realized that I had no fleshly mind in the first place, to be mentally faulty in the second place. Nothing connected to the false, physical sense of myself (good or bad) was ever true of my real being, which was the expression of God's goodness, health, and truth. So, I recommend that way to handle fear when it comes upon us. Each day, we can find something to fear in today's world. Our beliefs in materiality allow fear to still come upon us because, in world belief, evil is everywhere. But when fear does come, or an uneasy, insecure feeling tries to take us over, we have a way out. That way is to follow what Christ Jesus tried to teach his followers, when he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," When using the term, I am, I believe he was referring to the universal Christ identity of each of us. I think he means that our correct identification of ourselves is the way out of human difficulties; it is the truth of spiritual, rather than physical, being; and it is the life that is immortally spiritual, rather than mortally material. We were not meant to live in fear, nor let it attach to us. When turning within, and mentally bringing to God's attention anything that threatens us, we take the first step in chasing away fear. Then, when we lay down our human burdens before the infinite Creator and leave them there, no ghost, of any type, will ever scare us again.
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