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From Dr.
Ernest Holmes -
Our mind must be steady in its conviction that our life is some
part  of God,
and that the Spirit is incarnated in us. Affirmations and denials
are for the purpose of vitalizing faith - for the purpose of converting
thought to a belief in things spiritual. The foundation for
correct mental treatment is perfect God, perfect man/woman, and perfect
being. Thought must be organized to fit this premise, and
conclusions must be built on this premise. We must keep our faith
vital, if we hope to successfully treat (pray) for ourselves or others.
No man has seen
God at any time, nor have we seen goodness, truth or beauty, but who can
doubt their existence?
No only must we
have complete faith in Spirit, and Its ability to know and to do, but we
must have complete confidence in our approach to It. We must
not be lukewarm in our conviction. We must know that we know.
We are to demonstrate that spiritual thought force has power over all
apparent material resistance, and this cannot be done unless we have
abounding confidence in the Principle which we approach.
Pure faith is a
spiritual conviction; it is the acquiescence of the mind, the embodiment
of an idea, the acceptance of a concept. It we believe that the
Spirit, incarnated in us, can demonstrate, shall we be disturbed at what
appears to contradict this? We shall often need to know
that the Truth which we announce is superior to the condition we are to
change. In other words, if we are speaking from the standpoint of
the Spirit, then there can be no opposition to It! It is only when
we let go of all human will, and recognize the pure essence of the
Spiritual Principle incarnated in us, that thought arises above a belief
in duality. We should constantly vitalize our faith by the
knowledge that the Eternal is incarnated in us; that God Himself goes
forth anew into creation through each one of us; and that in such degree
as we speak the Truth, the Almighty has spoken.
THE TECHNIQUE OF ACQUIRING FAITH
There is no one who believes
more in faith, more in prayer, or more in the necessity of the Divine
Will being done, than the person who practices daily the Science of
Mind. She/he has relieved her/his mind of the morbid sense that
the Will of God can be the will of suffering; for if there were a
suffering God, and if we are eternal beings, then we should suffer
through all eternity. But a suffering God is an impossibility.
We suffer because we are not in both conscious and subjective
communication with the affirmative side of the Universe. All human
misery is a result of ignorance; and nothing but knowledge can free us
from this ignorance and its effects.
As students of the
Science of Mind, we find in the remarkable character of Jesus, a great
impetus toward faith and conviction. The Centurion came to Jesus
and asked Him to heal his servant, and Jesus said: "Go thy
way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." The
Centurion had what we call a mental equivalent of Divine authority.
In the realm in which he lived, he was accustomed to speak his word with
authority. He accepted the word of Jesus as having authority on
the invisible plane. Jesus said, "I have not found so great
faith, no, not in all Israel."
There is nothing in the Universe
that denies us the right to be happy, if our happiness does not deny or
interfere with the general good. The Universe remains unlimited,
though the whole world has suffered a sense of limitation.
We should be careful not to divide
our mental house against itself. Having announced a law of
liberty, we must not deny it. The mold of acceptance is the
measure of our experience. The Infinite fills all molds and
forever flows into new and greater ones. Within us is the unborn
possibility of limitless experience. Our is the privilege of
giving birth to it! - the Science of Mind
From my teachers I have learned
statements that have permeated my consciousness; from Dr. Domenic A.
Polifrone, I learned, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his
ways," and from Dr. O. C. Smith, I learned, "lukewarm water
does not boil eggs." In other words, not only are we to
remain steadfast in knowing the Truth ... knowing that God is in
agreement with our Good ... but we are to cultivate and nurture a vital
faith in our Good ... that it is available and it is ours now ... no
matter what may appear to be otherwise.
"The world is a fantastic, beautiful,
joyful experience for those who allow it to be. Life wants to
express Itself abundantly and extravagantly, but it always does so in
perfect order. I am part of that experience, and I live my life
accordingly," writes Rev. Paul Gonyea (Atlanta Church of Religious
Science) in a prayer treatment.
We must know that
"I am not all of God, but all I am is God" ... and in this
understanding we know that we are an expression of Life unfolding as
God's life. So, we must choose to live in the way an Infinite
Intelligence would choose to live ... free of doubt, worry and fear ...
with a mind that is open to Infinite possibilities ... a life lived from
the Truth that I am not nationality, race or gender ... All I am is God
... as we identify with our Divine nature and loose the ideas and
concepts that separate us from Life ... tremendously wonderful things
begin to automatically become part of our Life experience.
And
So It Is!
Maximum Love,
Rev.
Hank Bates
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