Are you a prophet? I asked myself. Are you kidding? I answered. My inner dialogue continued:
Well, would you be a prophet, if you could?
Off the top of my head? Probably not. I'm pretty busy with (check all that apply) family, work, church, civic affairs, recreation, friends.
But does it seem possible to you for people to learn to heal today, following Jesus' example?
Yes, it does.
Why?
Because I'm finding out through Christian Science that Christian healing isn't just for Jesus' time. The divine laws underlying the Way-shower's works are applicable today, too.
At this point I felt I was ready to look again at the statement that started this line of thinking in the first place. It's in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. It says, "The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Christianity which heals the sick and destroys error, and no other sign shall be given." Science and Health, p. 98.
Do you see yourself in that sentence? You may well be there. For to glimpse scientific Christianity dawning irresistibly on humanity's need is to look with the prophet's eye. It's to begin to see past material theories that would counter spiritual healing to the truth of the saving activity of almighty Spirit as demonstrated by Christ Jesus.
The Science of Christianity, as it is understood, gives us a spiritually based confidence about the future. It equips mankind to meet with healing the whole range of its needs—needs known and unknown, present and future, individual and collective. This Science helps us see that because God, good, is All, the only lawgiver and creator, as the Bible shows, it follows that whatever would condemn man and the universe to evil must be false. And this falsehood must yield to an understanding of God's omnipotence.
To mortal thought, turmoil and lack loom as the signs of the times. They seem to overshadow the hopeful dawn of Christian healing with its matchless blessings for humanity's well-being. Yet who doesn't long for a bright, secure future? We can support people's hopes and their efforts in this direction by lifting up humanity's prophet potential: the capacity to perceive the spiritual sign, the healing of sin and sickness through divine power, as Jesus healed.
We begin to recognize this potential as we align our thought, through prayer, with infinite, incorporeal Spirit. This helps us see that the capacity to perceive the promise of Christian healing isn't exclusive but inclusive. Having its source in ever-present, eternal Spirit, spiritual discernment owes nothing to map or culture, calendar or clock. It's universal, a constant, permanent activity of man's true identity as God's idea. It's not extraordinary, but wonderfully natural to man, who is always at the peak of spiritual capacity. In truth, then, no one lacks the spiritual understanding that discerns "the things of the Spirit." Rom. 8:5.
Yet we may have felt at times that we and our world are stubbornly preoccupied with material traditions and incredulous of anything better, perhaps like the Pharisees and Sadducees. When they asked Jesus for a sign from heaven, he answered, "O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Matt. 16:3. Wasn't this sign the Master's unparalleled healing, signifying man's spiritual unity with God?
Surely, Jesus, who so fully demonstrated Christly, Spirit-centered vision, would not have demanded spiritual discernment of his listeners if he had regarded man as incapable of understanding spiritually. To the Master it must have been clear that, despite evidence to the contrary, man cannot in truth be categorized (those open to new views of divine reality, those hardened against them, those indifferent), because man is in reality God's offspring, fully endowed with spiritual perception. Obviously, this didn't mean that Jesus disregarded the worldly, sinful state of thought that shuts out spiritual things. He didn't ignore the need for correcting mistaken views of God and man. Nor do we disregard misperceptions of Christian healing. But correcting them surely requires great Christliness and humility. And to categorize others superficially as spiritually ready or not ready may well show our need for greater receptivity ourselves, as I learned one Sunday.
A friend who occasionally attended church came when the subject for the Lesson-Sermon, outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, was "Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced." I labeled this topic "difficult" and knew my friend was hearing it without benefit of prior study. I wondered if she could get anything out of it! After the service she remarked, "I could really relate to what I heard. It's like stuff going on in my own life."
What a rebuke to my skepticism! My mistaken outlook hadn't prevented my friend from appreciating the Lesson-Sermon, for how could a misperception interfere with the truth of man's innate spiritual-mindedness? How could it interfere with the activity of Christ, the divine message from God, which communicates spiritual understanding to human consciousness at each individual's point of experience?
Supporting humanity's potential to discern the spiritual sign surely requires that we come to church, and to our day, not with skepticism but with God-derived brotherly love. This love, reflecting divine Love, witnesses to man's God-created identity. So it cannot underestimate another's inherent spiritual-mindedness as the likeness of God. Genuine brotherly love, while not naive, excludes preconceptions about what our neighbors and we ourselves can (or cannot) understand about divine reality. It rejoices that, as God's offspring, man reflects spiritual discernment.
Through deeply felt spiritual love we are helped in acknowledging that man, the idea of the one Mind, cannot be ignorant of divine good. We come to see that man esteems infinite Spirit and is untouched by a supposed tendency to resist or discredit spirituality. The brotherly love that strives to see ourselves and our fellow beings in this light helps bring to church, home, community, and world a growing awareness of each one's prophet potential, each one's spiritual capacity to discern the power of divine Truth and Love in meeting the human need.
What a vast resource for good this God-given ability to glimpse divine reality represents! For spiritual discernment helps replace agitation and foreboding with a practical expectation of progress.
To categorize others superficially as spiritually ready or not ready may well show our need for greater receptivity ourselves, as I learned one Sunday.
To the author of Ecclesiastes the future looked like this: "That which is to be hath already been." What has already been? Mistakes and tragedies? This view would doom mankind to a future of endlessly repeating, in ever-shifting forms, the personal and collective wrongs of the past. It would deny humanity's prophet potential, the ability to perceive the spiritual healing of sin and sickness. But is this discouraging picture the only way to view the past? In the verse preceding the one just quoted, the writer said, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Eccl. 3:14, 15. Recognizing God, Spirit, as the everlasting creator, we can glimpse the fact that to infinite Spirit, that which has already been is eternal Life. In this Life there is no material past, only the continuity of perfect, spiritual existence.
God's goodness is not an event-future, past, or present. It's eternal truth, the law of divine reality. So the spiritual universe, including man, is always blessed, whole, divinely governed. To spiritual perception, then, the future does not threaten fearsome unknowns and cycles of devastation. Rather, the future is seen as one way to describe mankind's continuing opportunity to enlarge an understanding of spiritual reality; of God as eternal, all-knowing Mind, and of man, God's reflection, as immortal, without birth or death.
The magnitude of humanity's needs requires that we hold vigorously in thought to the spiritual truth of God and His universe. This is natural to us, and it's evidence of who we really are as God's image. This spiritual outlook fosters an expectation of progress that is far more than just a way to buck ourselves up in hard times with a desperate hope that better times may come someday. It's an expectation based on Truth itself—on accepting something of the profound fact that turmoil hasn't a shred of divine authority and must yield to the all-power of the "still small voice" of God.
On this basis we can begin to take a different look at negative forecasts. These describe man as in the grip of matter, with no way out. They say, for instance, "You're getting older, so you can expect such-and-such to happen to your body today or tomorrow or next year." They may warn of impending collective danger, like conflict between nations over water supply, or a growing gap between rich and poor, or wrenching hardship in times of political change. Spiritual discernment helps us meet these predictions—whether made about ourselves or about members of the global family—as specific opportunities to understand God's government more fully.
In reality, man, as God's spiritual idea, doesn't dwell in matter, whether termed a body or a country. He lives in Spirit, where God's control and guidance are supreme. God's law of good is eternally present to redeem mankind from the mistaken view that God's offspring could ever be separated from the love and care of their Maker. As we begin to understand God's law, we come to see more clearly that evil can have no hold on the future. Spiritual sense insists that evil is a lie, a false sign, that must inevitably give way to the presence and authority of divine Principle, Love.
Bringing our thought into agreement with the spiritual truths of God's government is prayer that provides practical aid to humanity. It turns us to divine wisdom, to the only source of intelligence and love. It's natural, then, for this prayer to impel steps that can benefit others. And no matter how modest these steps may seem, they will be useful to the degree that they spring from unselfish love.
A small experience taught me something of this. I felt compassion for the innocent victims of grievous political wrongdoing and a desire to help correct that wrong. For me, this led to writing an article on the subject. Just as I was finishing it, this very topic suddenly jumped into world headlines. The article's unforeseen timeliness helped the company for which it was written respond quickly to the compelling need to address the subject.
To me this wasn't coincidence but proof of divine control. That's because several times I had almost stopped writing the article. Was it really that important or necessary? I asked myself. But remembering my original desire to help, I saw the need to identify this desire as reflecting something of divine Love rather than simply a good intention. As a result, I saw the article more in terms of a God-impelled assignment than a personal choice to be taken up or dropped as I pleased. The outcome showed me the importance of focusing on the spiritual motive, no matter what our task. This focus aids in bringing out our prophet potential, our ability to glimpse the law of Spirit, and so witnesses in a degree to the blessings of divine government.
Exercising the spiritual discernment inherent in our genuine selfhood isn't just another item tacked onto a day's full agenda. It's a natural part of everything we do in aiming to follow the example of Christ Jesus. And because his example is one of unselfish love, it's clear that spiritual discernment can't be harnessed to a selfish desire for personal gain. It isn't a means of achieving personal advancement at the expense of others. Rather, it supports a developing sense of Love's impartial provision.
Jesus took no personal responsibility for somehow making God's will happen. He understood his whole role to be obedience to the divine will. So, too, in striving to uphold humanity's ability to discern spirituality, we can rely on God's good will to bring fulfillment and fruition to light.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord,—assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven,—the actual reign of harmony on earth." Science and Health, p. 122. To bring to our world our best understanding of eternal Life and of mankind's God-given right to recognize the dawn of spiritual healing is to help answer humanity's hope for a future that offers more than the frustrations and frightening hollowness of material existence. For Christian healing helps reveal the perfection and fulfillment native to man as the expression of infinite, perfect Spirit, the one God.
Through scientific Christianity we begin to understand that matter's apparent hold on humanity has no foundation in the law of almighty Spirit. The notion of life in matter, then, is powerless to thwart true destiny: the transformation and redemption of human experience by divine Love. Mankind's potential for discerning this spiritual truth is as unlimited as Truth itself.
