"The Lord was not in the fire." This assurance came to Elijah (I Kings 19:12) as he stood upon the mount before the Lord. Elijah was hiding from his enemies in a cave when an angel message came to him to go forth, and there was revealed to him God's presence and power, and the impotence of the material fury of wind, earthquake, and fire. The prophet needed the lesson, for his trust in God's power had apparently been darkened in this period of tribulation. From the experience, he saw that it was necessary for his safety and progress to face his enemies without fear. He needed to awaken to the fact that there is no power in evil.
When in our everyday affairs we seem hard pressed by difficult or dangerous circumstances, we too may be tempted to fear the power of evil and seek refuge in a cave of despondency. If so, we too can profit by Elijah's experience and face the enemy and subdue it. Christian Science reveals the scientific method not only of overcoming the fear of danger, but of eliminating the danger itself. Mary Baker Eddy points out in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 293), "There is no vapid fury of mortal mind—expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity—and this so-called mind is self destroyed."
Man is not a corporeal being subject to danger and destruction. Man is God's perfect, spiritual image, or expression. His true identity is not subject to the ravages of the elements or the barbarity of men. Man is in reality "hid with Christ in God," as Paul informed the Colossians (3:3). Man, the child of God, need not and cannot find refuge in matter, in flight, in munitions of war. This perfect man of God is not a physical form, nor does he inhabit a physical locality. No weapon can destroy the real man, for that man, one's true selfhood, is not located in the material realm of danger and destruction. God, Spirit, is man's habitation. To spiritual consciousness, which is universal, matter is unknown.
The understanding that man and the universe are spiritual is an effective protection against evil and discord and destroys their fraudulent or malicious efforts to endanger our human activities. A spiritually minded individual can prove that he is saved from danger or is guided through it with no hurt. Spirituality of thought prepares the individual to make right decisions in everyday affairs and thus to find safety and harmony.
The three Hebrew captives suffered no hurt from their experience in the fiery furnace; Daniel was safe in the den of lions; the Israelites were preserved from the waters of the Red Sea, which stood as a wall on either side of them as they passed through. Miracles? No, they were the natural proofs of the power of God, which appears when one awakens to the recognition of the supremacy of Spirit over matter.
Mrs. Eddy says in "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468): "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." A clear comprehension of this assurance corroborates Elijah's discovery that "the Lord was not in the fire." It was clear to Elijah that God was not in the fire.
The fire of destruction is without God, without intelligence or power. There is nothing good in it, no real force in it, no mind in it. It can only destroy itself. What then is its apparent power? Evil, whether going by the name of fire, earthquake, wind, water, sin, disease, or death, has no capacity to succeed except that which mortal fear and common consent give it. That is why the prayer of spiritual understanding, as taught in Christian Science, can destroy the false belief of power in evil and thus render the feared calamity harmless. The good effects of this righteous prayer are not limited to the one who realizes the truth specifically, but these effects extend impersonally in some measure to others about him. The higher the trust in the infinite God, the more effective and certain is the protection. It behooves us all, then, to magnify our trust in Deity, for the more we trust God, the less will we encounter dangers.
Our protection rests in elevating our thoughts to the understanding that all that really exists is perfect God and His perfect creation. We must recognize that there are not a multitude of forces operating, some good and some bad, but that there is only one power, Christ, Truth, the force of God. This power understood and applied destroys the false belief that there are co-operating or competing forces, which have in themselves the monopoly of power and absolute influence and control over us.
God neither sends, accompanies, aids, invests with authority, or inhabits evil forces, nor have they any real power of their own. There is no force in evil or matter. That is why our understanding of the dominant power of God tends to destroy their seeming force. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 14), "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth."
As we demonstrate the clear understanding of the power of Christ, Truth, over all evil, we shall feel the clear conviction, even as did Elijah, that "the Lord was not in the fire."
