The demonstration of the power of God, divine Mind, through healing is an essential aspect of Christianity and Christian Science. Faith, hope, expectation, are building blocks of prayer. But an understanding prayer ushers in spiritual consciousness. In this consciousness, or knowing of perfect being, the healing of sin and sickness takes place. It was the Christlike consciousness of Jesus that enabled him to heal.
Christian Science accepts the authority of the Bible statement: "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."Gen. 1:31; God, being perfect, All, could not make anything unlike Himself. Mrs. Eddy writes, "In divine Science, man is the true image of God." And in the same paragraph she adds, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration."Science and Health, p. 259;
To know that God is all good and there is no evil it is necessary to raise thought to the level of perfection. Healing through such realization often requires persistent effort. It is a grand accomplishment when we can depend on the affirmations of good to bring healing. But when the material senses shout their claims, we must answer with firm denials of evil. When our affirmations of Truth raise human consciousness above the testimony of the senses, we perceive perfection, and healing results.
Christ Jesus, partly because he was Mary's son, was able to understand human needs. But he was fully endowed with spiritual perception. When healing a human malady, he turned naturally from the material evidence of the senses to the completely spiritual man—the good, pure, and true reflection of the good, pure, and true God. Christian Science teaches us to follow the example of the Master. Through earnest study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings we can do this.
As the expression of God, man can reflect only good. Jesus' perception of this was so clear that when he healed someone, the bystanders also glimpsed something of man's perfection. They saw the sufferer freed from the blemish they had observed but a few moments before. Jesus prayed, constantly. The healings he effected were the spontaneous answers to his prayers.
Prayer is indispensable in Christian Science. And healing is essential to prove the efficacy of prayer. Prayer establishes in us the understanding that expresses the infinite power of God. And this power heals.
When prayer is a mixture of human hope and spiritual aspiration, the healing may be delayed or incomplete. The true basis of healing must be established by inspiration. Prayer is the vestibule of thought through which we gain inspiration and complete knowing. Christ Jesus never stopped short of the final, permanent proof of man's perfection, the evidence of his oneness with perfect God. When the disciples were unable to heal the boy afflicted with a dumb spirit, they asked the Master, "Why could not we cast him out?" Jesus replied, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."Mark 9:28, 29; The disciples had not sufficiently given up their material beliefs. That sacrifice was necessary to make their prayers effective.
There is a tendency, sometimes, to pray sincerely and persistently for healing and then to wonder why the healing does not come. The correct words are used; the motives are sincere. What is missing? "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality," Mrs. Eddy writes. "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."Science and Health, p. 261;
We have to look for, and see, the complete and perfect man the Master saw, and then the healing will appear. Jesus put it in a few potent words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."Matt. 6:33.
