Then Abraham Laughed

AND the Lord said of Sarah: “And I will bless her, and give thee a son of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her.

“Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?’ “

No wonder Abraham laughed when he thought of such an impossible thing as bearing a child at ninety. It had never happened before, and it was utterly im­possible, so far as he knew; but the Lord said that Sarah would bring forth a child at ninety. What are you going to do about it? Deny it? Argue about it? Try to twist it around to suit your own notion? Or are you beginning to believe that the Spirit you have spoken of so long, is the “doerof the impossible” and the only doer of the impossible. Everything that is impossible to the human mind is possible to God. What have you to say about that? Believe it? Or deny it?

“Yes I know, but,” and “Be reasonable.” If you are “reasonable” you are using human limitations, and your present problem is just as impossible of being solved as Sarah, bringing forth a child at ninety—yet the Lord said, “She shall bring forth a child at ninety.”

These marvelous citations are given in order that you may glimpse the Power of Almighty God in con­tradistinction to the thought forces which you have used for so long, and which have failed to accomplish “whereunto they were sent.”

“What? You mean to heal this incurable disease? It is impossible, for this is a condition that has never been touched by anything. Don’t make me laugh with your absurd promises that I can be well!” (That I can suddenly perceive the difference between the ways of God and the ways of man, and learn that the “ways of God” are past finding out, and are in no way con­cerned with the concrete belief of human thought.)

The Ways of God are past finding out. The ways and means of bringing the impossible into visibility, of offsetting and overturning the best established be­liefs of man and organizations, are past the specula­tion of human thought. No sooner are you confronted with a problem in your life than you measure it by relative findings and pronounce it incurable. At that moment you contact all the race-consciousness of that particular problem and it is intensified a thousand­fold. If you have heart trouble and have accepted it as such, you are at once in league with the sum total of the world-consciousness on that subject. The next move is to verify its findings, and so you see your heart trouble written in letters of fire against a black sky. You find it everywhere, because there is agreement with evil all over the world. Everything you contact gives added proof of that which you have accepted as true. Having once accepted it as true, you then begin fighting it vigorously. You deny it. You affirm some­thing that is supposed to heal it. You fight it with ma­terial weapons, and at every move you find it more and more aggravated and intense. Everything seems leagued in a subtle conspiracy to prove true what you have accepted as true. That is in accordance with the Law, for the pattern you hold in consciousness must be made manifest.

Working from the mental basis when trying to overcome this belief only intensifies it. You are faced with the idea of a new birth, (ye must be born again) and while this sounds as terrific and imposs­ible to you as it did to Nebuchadnezzar, once you per­ceive that it is to be accomplished (not by the way of man but by the way of God), you instantly open a door of escape.

No wonder Abraham laughed when he heard such a fairy tale about Sarah. So do you laugh in your hu­man state of consciousness, when you hear that from your present prison of belief, age, disease, or what you will, you have a perfect means of escape into the fulfillment of your desire. You are so hypnotized with the findings of the WORLD that you are skeptically amused that any one would say it was possible for you to bring forth your desire. But, know that the moment you arrive at any spiritual state you have al­ways been there. In reality that is so. Never for one moment has your Permanent Identity stopped func­tioning on the spiritual plane; and though you have drifted for years, or even centuries, in the uncharted waters of human thinking, your ark suddenly comes to haven on Mount Ararat, salvaged by the revelation o f Jesus Christ.

The moment you accomplish anything in the way of the higher consciousness, former things and be­liefs pass away and even “the memory of it is no more.” So you cannot even recall the time when you were under the curse of the law o f disease or poverty. From the moment you touch the Consciousness o f health and prosperity in the Mind o f God, you have always been in the place o f health and plenty. It is wonderful how the light is suddenly coming to you. Every move in the revelation of Light is a gain. You cannot revert to the former state. “The former things have passed away.” Suppose you are faced with a condition that is quite as humanly impossible as the bringing forth of a child at ninety. Are you going to break out into ribald laughter? Will the sudden revelation of the possibility of this thing which can­not happen to you be “laughed to scorn” as was the Master, Jesus, when He said something above the scope of the human intellect? Are you ready to HEAR the Word and obey the Voice and find ALL the “wis­domof man foolishness in -the eyes of God?” Or are you making some reservations, such as, “Yes, I know, but this is different; my case,” etc., etc. Answer me!

Do you BELIEVE or do you believe? Do you be­lieve the Word of God or are you dividing it? The “house divided against itself shall fall,” and so the consciousness that believes only partly in God and more wholly in Evil, shall drop to the level of its most human thought.

So you have to have a child at ninety? You have to find a job when there is none? You have to cure an incurable disease? You have to find happiness in a world of woe? And when you are told to go ahead and have the “child at ninety” then you laugh the in­credulous laugh of the mental consciousness, which says, “Well, go ahead and try it, but let me see the sign.” “Thou fool! Do you not know that a seed must first fall into the ground and rot before it can be made alive?” Do you suppose the consciousness that “laughed,” the consciousness ninety years old, could have conceived that new idea? Do you think for a moment that you are going to graft this new revela­tion onto the old, worn-out consciousness with which you have been working lo, these many years?

This old consciousness knows it is all so “ridicu­lous”; that it is nothing but “talk,” a narcotic to put you to sleep, and so it is from the relative stand­point, because the “Wisdom of God is foolishness in the eyes of man.” The Ways of God are neither un­derstandable nor possible to man, so he discounts the whole thing as something worse than absurd.

“Awake thou that sleepest.” This new revelation can no more take place with you in your present state of consciousness than it could with Abraham while he was skeptical in regard to Sarah. The marvelous thing is that when the urge comes, or the Voice and WORD send forth a decree, the ways and means of its taking place are with it. For wrapped up in every desire is the means of expressing itself. Do you hear? You do not get the power from without, or from some affirmation. The desire has within itself this seed of power, which when once recognized, begins its expan­sion until it has broken the shell or pattern of its present limitation, and the new order has set in. The in­curable disease and the fear that you have about it will both be shattered by the Power which is wrapped up in the desire for health you have within you, which Power only awaits your calling it by name (JesusChrist).

Is your condition comparable with bearing a child at ninety? The medical world would charge the latter off to religious hallucination, and your own people will charge off your possible healing to imagination. They believe it is just as out of the question as did Abraham, when he heard that Sarah was to bear a child. It is interesting that Abraham laughed, because he did not think it possible (and any reasoning person would agree). Neither does any one believe that you can bring out what you are seeking to produce. Yet when once you “hear the Voice,” saying “You shall bring forth a child at ninety,” know that the ways and means will be provided, and that it will all be natural. The only thing that is not natural about the situation of bringing forth a child at ninety is your belief and acceptance of age. That is something that has to do with thought, and not with man, made in the image of God. It is something that man has conceived as a measure of life. Yet Life is without beginning or end, and has no age. God is no older now than He was at the beginning. The only age existent is the record of events in your life.

“God bath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” Thus saith Sarah. She has the proof of this wonderful urge of spirit to do the impos­sible, and do you note that she is laughing? Her laugh is joyous recognition. “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” So will you suddenly burst out in joyous laughter, and this laughter will shatter old be­liefs of death, and so flood your temple with light and joy that all the parts of it shall be again fresh and new, and the light shall search the joints and marrow.

“And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear willlaugh with me.” Again it does not say “all.” It says, “all that hear,” for there are many that will not hear the laughter of God and will not be able to attain the planes of light and revel­ation which make the Divine event possible. They cannot discover the place thereof because they can­not hear the laughter of Sarah. They are so busy laughing with Abraham that they have missed the whole event. Take heed lest it so be with you. Rather be you so engrossed in recognizing the Power and magnifying the Lord within you that your child (heart’s desire) may be born. The ways and means will take care of themselves, and before you know it the “Laughter of God” will burst over you and you will cause many who hear to rejoice and to give thanks that the Lord Omnipotent reigneth. It is wonderful. Sarah laughed. Why? Because she was inspired to gala laughter by the sudden revelation that the thing which was utterly impossible was actually happening. Yes, in spite of every man-made law it was coming to pass. The joke was on the human law. You, too, will burst forth into laughter. At first, deep within your soul, a silent, glorious light-laughter, which, as it nears the surface of your temple will break out into a joyous, audible thanksgiving as the Word is made flesh within you, and through you; and you launch forth your manifestation, knowing that your Redeemer liveth.

No matter what your problem is, or how long­standing, or how hateful and ugly it may appear, it is nothing to be compared with the allotment given Sarah. The child had to be born when it could not be formed. It had to come forth when every one was laughing at the idea—even her husband; and yet this came to pass. Why? Because it was conceived as pos­sible in the heart. Not in the head. The difference is great and wonderful, for in the heart does one feel or sense realities and in the head does one reduce the same to utter impossibilities. Thought is the killer that destroys everything which does not fit or con­form to its false education.

Sarah is sometimes interpreted to mean “bitter” and we see how, out of this bitter-to-the-taste, hope­less state of affairs, something glorious took place that seemingly could not take place. You will see how everything in the parable indicates that the thing which you are attempting to bring forth is as nothing to that which has already been done. And this very revelation causes you to burst forth in laughter. And this very joyous laughter of recognition breaks away the hard and fast beliefs that have formed about your desire. It is released and set free and its name is also called Isaac (sometimes interpreted Laughter) Child of Promise.

At ninety you shall bring forth a child! Isn’t it wonderful? A serenity settles in upon you as you begin actually to Believe in God and in ME who was sent by God. Unlatch the sandals, you are standing on holy ground. You are in the presence of the Power of God made manifest. And you shall bring forth a Child at ninety. Laugh then. Shout for joy! The Lord Omnipotent reigneth!

 

Walter C. Lanyon