Did you ever stop to think about Christ Jesus' total commitment to spiritual identification? His answer to questions posed to him revealed his conscious oneness with God. He said: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand"; "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work"; "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." John 3:35; 5:17, 19. Over and over, Jesus confirmed his relationship to God as his source. It becomes exquisitely clear that his unceasing identification of man as the perfect expression of the one true Mind—his Father-Mother God—was the key to demonstration. He was individualizing God's power. Truth, God, was asserting itself and supplying him with the truth of his being. His proofs of God's love embracing humanity gave the world a whole new dimension to living.
This insight can inspire us to "go and do likewise," and thus begin a commitment to align our thoughts with God more consistently. Of course we may think we are already doing this, but probably we'd all admit that there's room for improvement. Make the commitment a conscious one. In her Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy writes: "Every human thought must turn instinctively to the divine Mind as its sole centre and intelligence. Until this be done, man will never be found harmonious and immortal."Mis., pp. 307-308.
Ruminating is a favorite pastime of the human mind. We tend to go over and over situations and conversations in our thought. Most of this involves useless cogitation regarding mortal personalities, material happenings, and fears concerning future events. But we can see through this miserable frame-up of the human mind and truly seek to let the divine Mind—the only real Mind—be our God. If we see the necessity of loving God supremely and of demonstrating this love through a practical worship— by accepting Him as the source of all true thought and volition and by doing His will—we will find that this conscious worship keeps us alert to the frequent and devious suggestions that make up the so-called human consciousness. The carnal mind would always have one identify himself as a mortal with brain-based, matter-based thinking.
When these mortal thoughts come in like a flood, we can answer back with authority: "You're not my thought! I can only know what God gives me to know!" Immediately we can turn thought to God and reconfirm our true identity: "I am image, idea, blessed child. My Father loves me. He alone is cause to me. I'm His reflection. There is no matter. There are no mortals. Man is immortal." These thoughts, and others like them, come from God. We aren't originating these thoughts. Spiritual thoughts constitute the true identity of man, which God is continually preserving. They are not just words repeated, but come as fresh inspiration each time we turn away from materiality—from what seems real to the unenlightened human mentality.
Learning to turn instinctively to our one true Mind may seem a challenge, because we tend to think of ourselves as independent thinkers, instead of spiritual Truth-knowers. Or perhaps we think this conscious recognition of our true identity as God's reflection will interfere with our effectiveness as human beings or make us too "religious." But that isn't so. It will make us more effective, for it leaves us free to function under the guidance of intelligent Mind.
A personal sense of self is what argues against the discipline this demands. Material personality is the opposite of spiritual individuality. Personality argues for a selfhood apart from God. It is the "me" that doesn't know who he is or why he's here. Man is God's reflection, the outcome of God's knowing. He is not a mortal personality, made up of conflicting emotional and hereditary forces. His heritage is sonship. He reflects the divine nature. His purpose is to express and glorify God. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The only cause for making this question of personality a point, or of any importance, is that man's perfect model should be held in mind, whereby to improve his present condition; that his contemplation regarding himself should turn away from inharmony, sickness, and sin, to that which is the image of his Maker."Ibid., pp. 97-98.
So often throughout the day one's thoughts are assaulted with images suggesting that man is a mortal with a finite mind—expressing self-will, domination, ill will, or ill health. If we have accepted the responsibility of watching our own thoughts—of knowing only what God knows and is causing His children to be—we will instantly reject these negative pictures the carnal mind presents. We will reject the "seems so" for the "is so," and turn to God to reidentify ourselves and our brother man as image, idea, precious child, the loved of the Father. We will claim Christliness as the present fact, and pray to yield up the limited testimony of the physical senses and perceive spiritual reality—unlimited, harmonious, eternal.
What is it that gives power and impulsion to this activity? It's love. Our genuine love for God and man. The more we love God and reverence our one true Mind, the easier it is to surrender a personal sense of self and accept sonship.
Then the question may arise as to whether surrendering to this spiritual discipline will have an effect on one's humanhood? Yes! One feels the blessing. Life becomes calmer, thoughts more tranquil, relationships more harmonious, and our efforts more productive. One feels, in some degree, the coincidence of the divine with the human. Remember, we are not working with some exercise of mind over matter. We are uniting with God, the one Mind, and subjugating matter as a factor in our experience. When one lives what he understands of his relationship to God by reflecting the divine nature through the attributes of God, he has availed himself of the same power that motivated, animated, and empowered Christ Jesus. Healing of human affairs is the natural result.
Another wonderful result is that one's whole viewpoint changes radically. We begin to view life with a capital L on it; that is, we see Life as God. Matter-based concepts give place to Spirit-based thinking, and we begin to see man more clearly as the perfect expression of divine Mind. We demonstrate more of what God knows, what He's causing us to be— His reflection, the complete manifestation that proceeds forth from the Father.
We will love the practical proofs that come from individualizing God's power. One such proof came to me unexpectedly one afternoon after church. A dear friend stepped off the top of a flight of stairs in my home and went head over heels down the stairs. The only word spoken was a loud and emphatic "No!" This denial was all there was time for, but behind it was an absolute conviction that all is illimitable Mind and its manifestation; if something isn't going on in God, the one consciousness, it isn't going on. As my friend came to a halt on the landing, I was right there to help her up. She looked up and said, "I am all right." "Of course you are," I replied as I gave her my hand. We went on down the remaining few stairs, continuing our conversation as if there had been no interruption. Her husband was with us. He said not a word. There was no rehearsal of error. There was no ruminating. Spiritual truth triumphed over mortal mind and its false, calamitous pictures, depriving it of any consciousness, place, witness, person, activity, or law. My friend called the next day to say she didn't even have a bruise.
This incident illustrates the power that lies behind our recognizing God as our one true Mind and committing ourselves to identifying man properly as His likeness. What will this do? Mrs. Eddy put it so well: "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160.
