Success in healing is dependent upon thought being made to move—a quickening of thought, if you will. And what we understand about how God communicates to us makes all the difference.
When we pray, we sometimes have words come to mind that impart exactly the truth we need to know. Some come from hymns, or the Bible, or the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science. At other times God’s communication may come through a feeling of being safe or loved or valued.
Regardless of how these messages come, what heals is our conscious recognition of a new view of God and His reality. This view provokes thought to an understanding that God and His perfect creation is all that is actually taking place right here, right now. This conscious awareness is God speaking to us through Christ, God’s revelation of Himself, and the Holy Ghost, by which thought is stirred and quickened.
The power that transforms thought and readies it to accept healing is divine.
This does not mean we can be passive or have no part to play. On the contrary, spiritually discerning, accepting, and valuing the truth conveyed is essential. We listen for what God has to tell us—open the door of our thought to it—and then actively embrace and love the reality that God unfolds to us in just the way that specifically meets our need. This is what brings healing.
Sometimes when Christ Jesus healed people, he began by asking what the individual wanted him to do for them or if they were ready to be healed. Those may seem like superfluous questions, but surprisingly, some, like the man at the pool of Bethesda (see John 5:1–9), were not at first ready to relinquish their long-held misconceptions about themselves and accept healing. This is a question we can ask ourselves: Would I be ready and willing to accept healing even if it was instantaneous? Honesty in answering is essential.
And what about someone who has asked us to pray for them? In a case where healing seems to be resisted, it is essential to know that the power that transforms thought and readies it to accept healing is divine. The Holy Ghost or Comforter that Christ Jesus promised God would send us is what breaks the inertia and inspires thought to move. The Holy Ghost acts as a catalyst which enlivens thought with expectancy and hope.
Some years ago I had a recurring physical condition that went on for some time. Periodically it felt as though there were little electrical impulses firing in my body. I was truly perplexed as to what the cause was. And believe me, there was no end to the suggestions regarding causes.
This is how false belief would keep us on a treadmill, trying to discover why something appears to exist when it doesn’t. Sometimes this is what impedes or retards healing—keeping thought bogged down with speculation about causes when our need is to understand that no such cause exists.
With the help of a Christian Science practitioner, I prayed deeply and diligently each time there was a flare-up. Then one day after a prolonged bout with this discomfort, these words came to me: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
I’d read those words of our Master, Christ Jesus, many times. “But what does that mean?” I asked myself. In that moment those words stirred and moved my thought. I clearly understood that there was nothing painful or detrimental going on in my body. Mortal mind, a fleshly mode of thinking, was lying to me and arguing that there was some deeply hidden error that had to be discovered and rooted out. But what I recognized in this sacred communication from God was this: “I am quickening you and causing you to thrive and grow and manifest My power. And that is all that is going on!”
I knew that my desire to live a God-inspired, Spirit-centered life was sincere and heartfelt. Therefore, I could accept the invitation to be quickened and moved to a higher understanding of God and my relationship to Him. Also, there was no requirement that I suffer as I went forward. This spiritual quickening, I realized, was all that had ever been taking place in me.
Thinking about the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (see Matthew 4:1–11), which includes the phrase “the devil taketh him up,” I saw that right at the time of each temptation, Jesus was actually rising up into a clearer spiritual sense of who he was and his dominion over all material conditions, until the temptations ceased and “angels came and ministered unto him.” I realized the angels had been speaking and ministering to him all along, and they were all that had been going on. And the same was true for me, and all of God’s beloved children. This was what I needed to understand in order to accept healing. As I did so, I was healed, completely and permanently.
So the question is, How does God speak to us? The recognition that His ideas coming to thought are actually all that is really taking place in a given moment is how we attain the demonstration of Truth. Our recognition and acceptance of the spiritual import of the words God speaks to us gives Truth authority in our consciousness. It moves the focus of thought off fixation on the problem and allows us to embrace the healing truth God is voicing.
Speaking of this need for thought to shift, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes, “The human heart, like a feather bed, needs often to be stirred, sometimes roughly, and given a variety of turns, else it grows hard and uncomfortable whereon to repose” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 127–128).
God speaks to us and illuminates our thinking through the Christ, and the activity of the Holy Ghost stirs our consciousness. It quickens and elevates us to see and accept the actuality of true, spiritual being right where something hurtful or troubling appears to be going on. This recognition of reality causes a nonexistent, lying, material mind to relinquish its false beliefs—to yield to the power of Truth and let go of its misconceptions.
The Holy Ghost is what breaks inertia and inspires thought to move.
God, divine Love, never gives up on us but continues to reveal the spiritual reality to our waiting consciousness in a way we can grasp and benefit from.
Learning to dig in and tenaciously hold to the spiritual facts God gives us strengthens and uplifts us. The action of Christ destroying the error in our consciousness, as well as the action of the Holy Ghost, the law of divine Love revealing our true being, is essential to the illuminating, stirring, and transformation of thought. And when thought is transformed, so is the body; whatever spiritualizes thought benefits the body.
When God speaks, we can respond with the knowledge that while words alone don’t heal, real being is being revealed to us, and we have the God-given ability to see it, experience it, and therefore rejoice in healing.
